title: Removal of pharmaceuticals from water by homo/heterogonous Fenton-type processes - A review.
abstract: The presence of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals in natural waters has raised increasing concern due to their frequent appearance and persistence in the aquatic ecosystem and the threat to health and safety of aquatic life, even at trace concentrations. Conventional water treatment processes are known to be generally inadequate for the elimination of these persistent contaminants. Therefore, the use of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) which are able to efficiently oxidize organic pollutants has attracted a great amount of attention. The main limitation of AOPs lies in their high operating costs associated with the consumption of energy and chemicals. Fenton-based processes, which utilize nontoxic and common reagents and potentially can exploit solar energy, will considerably reduce the removal cost of recalcitrant contaminants. The disadvantages of homogeneous Fenton processes, such as the generation of high amounts of iron-containing sludge and limited operational range of pH, have prompted much attention to the use of heterogeneous Fenton processes. In this review, the impacts of some controlling parameters including the H2O2and catalyst dosage, solution pH, initial contaminants concentrations, temperature, type of catalyst, intensity of irradiation, reaction time and feeding mode on the removal efficiencies of hetero/homogeneous Fenton processes are discussed. In addition, the combination of Fenton-type processes with biological systems as the pre/post treatment stages in pilot-scale operations is considered. The reported experimental results obtained by using Fenton and photo-Fenton processes for the elimination of pharmaceutical contaminants are also compiled and evaluated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, H3G 1M8, Canada.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirzaei
authors.affiliation: Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, H3G 1M8, Canada. Electronic address: zhichen@alcor.concordia.ca.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, H3G 1M8, Canada.
authors.forename: Fariborz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Haghighat
authors.affiliation: Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, H3G 1M8, Canada.
authors.forename: Laleh
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yerushalmi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: C045076:Fenton's reagent; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D014867:Water; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D007501:Iron
keywords: Emerging contaminants; Heterogeneous Fenton process; Pharmaceuticals; Photo-Fenton; Toxicity; Water treatment