Abstract
Emerging contaminants’ presence in water, wastewater, and aquatic environments has been widely reported. Their environmental and health-related effects, and the increasing tendency towards wastewater reuse require technology that could remove to a greater degree, or even mineralize, all these contaminants. Currently, the most commonly used process technologies for their removal are advanced oxidation processes (AOPs); however, recent advances have highlighted other advanced treatment processes (ATPs) as possible alternatives, such as advanced reduction processes (ARPs) and advanced oxidation-reduction processes (AORPs). Although they are not yet widely diffused, they may remove contaminants that are not readily treatable by AOPs, or offer better performance than the former. This paper presents an overview of some of the most common or promising ATPs for the removal of contaminants from water and wastewater, and their application, with discussion of their limitations and merits. Issues about technologies’ costs and future perspectives in the water sector are discussed.
Highlights
The detection of emerging contaminants in the environment and in waste and supply water is increasing due to the ever-growing role of chemistry in industrial production and to advancements in analytical technology [1,2,3]
This paper presents a review of some of the most common advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) process technologies used for the removal of emerging contaminants from water and wastewater, and introduces discussion about two lesser-known classes of processes, advanced reduction processes (ARPs) and advanced oxidation-reduction processes (AORPs), that may offer a similar or better performance than the former
The classes of processes examined below are termed advanced treatment processes (ATPs), since they are capable of achieving degradation of specific constituents in solution, not normally achieved by other treatment options
Summary
The detection of emerging contaminants in the environment and in waste and supply water is increasing due to the ever-growing role of chemistry in industrial production and to advancements in analytical technology [1,2,3]. These, commonly addressed as a group under the term of ‘contaminants of emerging concern’ (CECs), are diverse and ubiquitous, frequently lumped into categories that describe their purpose, use, or other characteristic (Table 1) [4] These contaminants could negatively affect water uses, human health, and ecosystem integrity, and cause the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria due to low persistent doses of residual pharmacological principles in human and animal excreta [5]. Several studies have shown that many compounds subject to biological, chemical, or surface processes are not completely degraded (mineralized) but may end up as transformation byproducts in the effluent, or accumulated within the residual solid phase (i.e., excess sludge) [11,12,13]. This paper presents a review of some of the most common AOP process technologies used for the removal of emerging contaminants from water and wastewater, and introduces discussion about two lesser-known classes of processes, advanced reduction processes (ARPs) and advanced oxidation-reduction processes (AORPs), that may offer a similar or better performance than the former
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