title: Removal of pharmaceuticals from secondary effluents by an electro-peroxone process.
abstract: This study compared the removal of pharmaceuticals from secondary effluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) by conventional ozonation and the electro-peroxone (E-peroxone) process, which involves electrochemically generating H2O2 in-situ from O2 in sparged O2 and O3 gas mixture (i.e., ozone generator effluent) during ozonation. Several pharmaceuticals with kO3 ranging from <0.1 to 6.8 × 10(5) M(-1) s(-1) were spiked into four secondary effluents collected from different WWTPs, and then treated by ozonation and the E-peroxone process. Results show that both processes can rapidly remove ozone reactive pharmaceuticals (diclofenac and gemfibrozil), while the E-peroxone process can considerably accelerate the removal of ozone-refractory pharmaceuticals (e.g., ibuprofen and clofibric acid) via indirect oxidation with OH generated from the reaction of sparged O3 with electro-generated H2O2. Compared with ozonation, the E-peroxone process enhanced the removal kinetics of ozone-refractory pharmaceuticals in the four secondary effluents by ∼40-170%, and the enhancement was more pronounced in secondary effluents that had relatively lower effluent organic matter (EfOM). Due to its higher efficiency for removing ozone-refractory pharmaceuticals, the E-peroxone process reduced the reaction time and electrical energy consumption required to remove ≥90% of all spiked pharmaceuticals from the secondary effluents as compared to ozonation. These results indicate that the E-peroxone process may provide a simple and effective way to improve existing ozonation system for pharmaceutical removal from secondary effluents.
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Weikun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Shubo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: wangyujue@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yujue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D004572:Electrolysis; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000737:chemistry*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide
keywords: Advanced oxidation; Hydrogen peroxide; Micropollutant; Ozone; Wastewater