Photochemical advanced oxidation processes for water and wastewater treatment

M.I. LITTER; N. QUICI

Recent patents on Engineering

Bentham

Año: 2010 vol. 4 p. 217 - 241

1872-2121

Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) are excellent systems for remediation of contaminated wastewaterscontaining recalcitrant organic pollutants. The most studied AOPs are photochemical-based processes (PAOPs), asUV/hydrogen peroxide, heterogeneous photocatalysis (HP), photo-Fenton (PF), UV plus ozone and combination of thesetechnologies. All AOPs are based on the production of very reactive species (especially hydroxyl radicals, HO•) able todegrade or transform chemical pollutants, provoking ultimately total mineralization. One of the major drawbacks of AOPsis that the operational costs are relatively high compared to less expensive technologies such as biological treatments, useof activated carbon, etc. However, these technologies can be used combined with themselves or with conventional technologies.In spite of a huge amount of scientific publications, applications and patented methods on PAOPs are scarce. Inthis article, a brief review on the most used PAOPs, together with recent patents on the field are presented. The patentsdescribe mostly inventions on HP and PF, most of them using catalysts supported on membranes, perovskites, zeolites orother materials, and combination of PAOPs with conventional technologies.