Effectiveness of the Aeration Process Using Radiant Catalytic Ionization (RCI) in the Elimination of Selected Pathogenic Microorganisms in Municipal Wastewater and Slurry—A Pilot Laboratory-Scale Study

(1) Background: Improper disinfection of slurry and municipal wastewater poses a serious threat to public health. These fluids are reservoirs of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. (2) Methods: This study aimed to evaluate, on a laboratory scale, the disinfection effectiveness of fine bubble aeration with air activated by radiant catalytic ionization (RCI) against Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella Senftenberg W775, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridioides difficile, Aspergillus niger and Ascaris suum eggs in comparison to conventional atmospheric air aeration. The inactivation kinetics was calculated on the basis of Weibull and first-order models. (3) Results: The final number of microorganisms on the last day in the slurry disinfected with RCI ranged from 1.14 &times: 102 for L. monocytogenes to 1.91 &times: 107 CFU (colony-forming unit) &times: mL&minus:1 for C. difficile. After using atmospheric air aeration, the bacteria number ranged from 2.82 &times: 103 for L. monocytogenes to 2.24 &times: 107 CFU &times: mL&minus:1 for C. difficile. In the case of aeration using RCI technology, the maximum time required to eliminate 99.9% of the microorganisms population was 20.84 days in slurry and 16.40 days in wastewater and was determined for A. niger. In the case of atmospheric air, this time was 47.76 days in slurry and 28.74 days in wastewater and was determined for C. difficile. In turn, the time to inactivate the number of invasive A. suum eggs by 90% was 20.70 and 24.61 weeks for RCI and 21.33 and 27.82 weeks for atmospheric air, respectively. Both in the case of slurry and municipal wastewater, disinfection with RCI was more effective than aeration with atmospheric air. (4) Conclusions: Our study, for the first time, exploits the possibility of using RCI in aeration to improve the efficiency of pathogen elimination from wastewater and slurry.