Oxidacion Avanzada

Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:769–776 (2008)

Perspective Advanced oxidation processes for water treatment: advances and trends for R&D
Christos Comninellis,1 Agnieszka Kapalka,1 Sixto Malato,2 Simon A Parsons,3 Ioannis Poulios4 and Dionissios Mantzavinos5∗
1 Ecole

´ ´ Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of ChemicalSciences and Engineering, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland ´ Solar de Almer´a (CIEMAT), Carretera Senes, km 4, E-04200 Tabernas, Almer´a, Spain ı ı 3 Centre for Water Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK 4 Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece 5 Department of Environmental Engineering, TechnicalUniversity of Crete, Polytechneioupolis, GR-73100 Chania, Greece
2 Plataforma

Abstract: Advanced oxidation comprises a range of similar but different chemical processes aimed at tackling pollution in water, air and soil. Over the past few decades, multidisciplinary research has been carried out to study a broad spectrum of topics such as understanding of process fundamentals, elucidation of kineticsand mechanisms, development of new materials, modelling, process integration and scale-up. This article identifies and discusses certain directions that seem to advance R&D on advanced oxidation for water/wastewater treatment.  2008 Society of Chemical Industry

Keywords: advanced oxidation processes; research advances; water; treatment

INTRODUCTION Advances in chemical water and wastewatertreatment have led to the development of methods termed advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) or technologies (AOTs). AOPs can be broadly defined as aqueous phase oxidation methods based on the intermediacy of highly reactive species such as (primarily but not exclusively) hydroxyl radicals in the mechanisms leading to the destruction of the target pollutant. Over the past 30 years, R&D concerningAOPs has been immense particularly for two reasons, namely (i) the diversity of technologies involved and (ii) the areas of potential application. Key AOPs include heterogeneous and homogeneous photocatalysis based on near ultraviolet (UV) or solar visible irradiation, electrolysis, ozonation, Fenton’s reagent, ultrasound (US) and wet air oxidation (WAO), while less conventional (and consequentlyless studied) but evolving processes include ionising radiation, microwaves, pulsed plasma and the ferrate reagent. Although water and wastewater treatment is by far the most common area for R&D, AOPs have also found applications as diverse as groundwater treatment, soil remediation, municipal wastewater sludge conditioning, ultrapure water production,

volatile organic compound treatment and odourcontrol.1 The growing interest of academic and industrial communities in AOPs is reflected in the increasing numbers of publications in several peer-reviewed journals, patents and international conferences dedicated to the environmental applications of AOPs. For example, over 4500 articles have been published in journals of the Science Citation Index between 2005 and 2007 dealing with processessuch as photocatalysis, ozonation, Fenton reactions, WAO and US; about 25% of them are devoted to photocatalytic processes. Water treatment by means of AOPs constitutes a core theme of research covering areas such as: 1) industrial effluent treatment including, amongst others, distillery, agrochemical, kraft-bleaching, pulp and paper, textile dyehouse, oilfield and metal-plating wastes; 2) hazardouseffluent treatment including hospital and slaughterhouse wastes; 3) removal of pathogens and persistent, endocrinedisrupting pharmaceutical residues from municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents (i.e. after secondary treatment);

∗ Correspondence to: Dionissios Mantzavinos, Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Polytechneioupolis, GR-73100 Chania,...