Fresh-cut wastewater reclamation: techno-economical assessment of solar driven processes at pilot plant scale

ABSTRACT Up-scaling of solar processes for water purification is a key challenge for their implementation at industrial scale on the agro-food sector. Benefits of using flow-tubular reactors provided with Compound Parabolic Collector mirrors has been previously demonstrated, nevertheless some techno-economic aspects still being unknown. This study shows a comparative analysis of the treatment efficiency of H2O2/solar and Fe3+-EDDHA/solar and Fe3+-EDDHA/H2O2/solar as novel processes for treating synthetic fresh-cut wastewater (SFCWW) containing 100 NTU of turbidity. The highest treatment capability was obtained with Fe3+-EDDHA/H2O2/solar (2.5/20 mg/L-Fe3+-EDDHA/H2O2), attaining the fastest microbial inactivation kinetics (>5-log of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enteritidis) and OMCs degradation (36% of 5 microcontaminants) in 60 and 120 min, respectively. Treated SFCWW by Fe3+-EDDHA/H2O2/solar process fits microbiological quality established in water reuse guidelines for irrigation, no bacterial reactivation after 24 h post-treatment, no significant ecotoxicity and treatment cost was estimated as 1.10 (only disinfection) and 2.10 €/m3 (simultaneous disinfection and decontamination).