Solar activated ozonation of phenol and malic acid

Promoting surface oxygen vacancies on ceria via light pretreatment to enhance catalytic ozonation

Oxygen vacancies catalyzed ozone into hydroxyl radicals which accelerated organic mineralization. Light pre-treatment of ceria intensifies its oxygen vacancy defect levels which are central to its performance in catalytic ozonation.

Terbuthylazine and desethylterbuthylazine: Recent occurrence, mobility and removal techniques

The herbicide terbuthylazine (TBA) has displaced atrazine in most of EU countries, becoming one of the most regularly used pesticides and, therefore, frequently detected in natural waters. The affinity of TBA for soil organic matter suggests prolonged contamination; degradation leads to the release of the metabolite desethylterbuthylazine (DET), which has higher water solubility and binds more weakly to organic matter compared to the parent compound, resulting in higher associated risk for contamination of groundwater resources. Additionally, TBA and DET are chemicals of emerging concern because of their persistence and toxicity towards aquatic organisms; moreover, they are known to have significant endocrine disruption capacity to wildlife and humans. Conventional treatments applied during drinking water production do not lead to the complete removal of these chemicals; activated carbon provides the greatest efficiency, whereas ozonation can generate by-products with comparable oestrogenic activity to atrazine. Hydrogen peroxide alone is ineffective to degrade TBA, while UV/H₂O₂ advanced oxidation and photocatalysis are the most effective processes for oxidation of TBA. It has been determined that direct photolysis gives the highest degradation efficiency of all UV/H₂O₂ treatments, while most of the photocatalytic degradation is attributed to OH radicals, and TiO₂ solar-photocatalytic ozonation can lead to almost complete TBA removal in ∼30 min. Constructed wetlands provide a valuable buffer capacity, protecting downstream surface waters from contaminated runoff. TBA and DET occurrence are summarized and removal techniques are critically evaluated and compared, to provide the reader with a comprehensive guide to state-of-the-art TBA removal and potential future treatments.

Solar photo-ozonation: A novel treatment method for the degradation of water pollutants

The decomposition of aqueous ozone by UV-vis radiation has been investigated with focus on the impact of ozone photolysis on the degradation of water pollutants during solar ozonation processes. The apparent first-order rate constants of the decomposition of ozone (kobs) have been determined at various pHs in the 4-9 range using radiation of different wavelengths in the UV-vis range. It was found that UVA-visible radiation (λ>320nm) highly enhanced ozone decomposition, especially at pH 4, for which kobs was three-folded with respect to the process in the absence of radiation. Hydrogen peroxide was identified as a main intermediate of ozone photo-decomposition at pH 4. Experiments of degradation of oxalic acid by ozone showed that solar irradiation brings about an increase in the hydroxyl radical to ozone exposures ratio (Rct). Finally, photo-ozonation (λ>300nm) was shown advantageous over single ozonation in the mineralization of a selection of emerging contaminants (metoprolol, ibuprofen, N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide and clofibric acid) in both ultrapure water and a synthetic secondary effluent. Thus, TOC removal in 2-h treatments increased from 10 to 25% in the absence of radiation to about 50% in the presence of radiation.

Novel relationship between hydroxyl radical initiation and surface group of ceramic honeycomb supported metals for the catalytic ozonation of nitrobenzene in aqueous solution

Comparative experiments have been performed to investigate the degradation efficiency of nitrobenzene and the removal efficiency of TOC in aqueous solution bythe processes of ceramic honeycomb supported different metals (Fe, Ni, and Zn) catalytic ozonation, indicating that the modification with metals can enhance the activity of ceramic honeycomb for the catalytic ozonation of nitrobenzene, and the loading percentage of metal and the metallicity respectively presents a positive influence on the degradation of nitrobenzene. The degradation efficiency of nitrobenzene is determined by the initiation of hydroxyl radical (*OH) according to a good linear correlation in all the processes of modified ceramic honeycomb catalytic ozonation at the different loading percentages of metals. The modification of ceramic honeycomb with metals results in the conversion of the pH at the point of zero charge (pHpzc) and the evolution of surface groups. Divergence from the conventional phenomenon, the enhancement mechanism of ozone decomposition on the modified ceramic honeycomb with metals is proposed due to the basic attractive forces of electrostatic forces or/and hydrogen bonding. Consequently, a novel relationship between the initiation of *OH and the surface-OH2+ group on the modified catalyst is established based on the synergetic effect between homogeneous and heterogeneous reaction systems.

Photocatalytic ozonation of phenolic wastewaters: Syringic acid, tyrosol and gallic acid

The photocatalytic ozonation of a mixture of 3 phenols (gallic acid, tyrosol and syringic acid) has been conducted under different operating conditions. The individual adsorption of the phenol type compounds onto titanium dioxide (photocatalyst) has been first evaluated. Equilibrium conditions are attained in less than an hour while the isotherm curves reveal that adsorption intensity increases in order: syringic acid < tyrosol < gallic acid. When the photocatalytic ozonation is applied, an optimum in titanium dioxide concentration is experienced (1.5 g L(-1)). Direct comparison of the photocatalytic ozonation to other less sophisticated oxidation systems (i.e., single ozonation, catalytic ozonation, photo-ozonation, etc.) indicates a higher efficiency of the former in terms of ozone uptake.

Environmental assessment of different advanced oxidation processes applied to a bleaching Kraft mill effluent

Different advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been applied to remove the organic carbon content of a paper mill effluent originating from the Kraft pulp bleaching process. The considered AOPs were: TiO(2)-mediated heterogeneous photocatalysis, TiO(2)-mediated heterogeneous photocatalysis assisted with H(2)O(2), TiO(2)-mediated heterogeneous photocatalysis coupled with Fenton, photo-Fenton, ozonation and ozonation with UV-A light irradiation. The application of the selected AOPs all resulted in a considerable decrease in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content with variable treatment efficiencies depending upon the nature/type of the applied AOP. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study was used as a tool to compare the different AOPs in terms of their environmental impact. Heterogeneous photocatalysis coupled with the Fenton's reagent proved to have the lowest environmental impact accompanied with a moderate-to-high DOC removal rate. On the other hand, heterogeneous photocatalysis appeared to be the worst AOP both in terms of DOC abatement rate and environmental impact. For the studied AOPs, LCA has indicated that the environmental impact was attributable to the high electrical energy (power) consumption necessary to run a UV-A lamp or to produce ozone.

Decomposition of phenol by hybrid gas/liquid electrical discharge reactors with zeolite catalysts

Application of hybrid gas/liquid electrical discharge reactors and a liquid phase direct electrical discharge reactor for degradation of phenol in the presence and absence of zeolites have been investigated. Hybrid gas/liquid electrical discharges involve simultaneous high voltage electrical discharges in water and in the gas phase above the water surface leading to the additional OH radicals in the liquid phase and ozone formation in the gas phase with subsequent dissolution into the liquid. The role of applied zeolites, namely NH4ZSM5, FeZSM5 and HY, were also studied. Phenol degradation and production of primary phenol by-products, catechol and hydroquinone, during the treatment were monitored by HPLC measurements. The highest phenol removal results, 89.4-93.6%, were achieved by electrical discharge in combination with FeZSM5 in all three configurations of corona reactors. These results indicate that the Fenton reaction has significant influence on overall phenol removal efficiency in the electrical discharge/FeZSM5 system due to the additional OH radical formation from hydrogen peroxide generated by the water phase discharge.