A Critical Evaluation of Advanced Oxidation Processes for Emerging Contaminants Removal

Removing emerging contaminants from waste streams has become a topic of growing interest. The adverse effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) have been well documented, but much remains to be known about these contaminants and their removal. Their removal with traditional methods has not been entirely successful. However, adequate degradation can be achieved through the use of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Multiple factors must be considered when completing an in-depth comparison; therefore, process engineering, environmental, and economic and social parameters were included in a deeper analysis. This study presents a ranking system to numerically score the performance of various AOPs (e.g., Ozonation, UV irradiation, Photocatalysis, Fenton reaction, and integrated processes) in several categories of parameters under engineering, environmental, and socioeconomic components. From this preliminary assessment, it was noted that H2O2/O3 (Perozonation) presented the highest average ranking (3.45), with other processes showing comparable performance. TiO2 photocatalysis received the lowest ranking (2.11).