Photo enhanced degradation of contaminants of emerging concern in waste water

Abstract

Emerging contaminants are posing serious global threats to the environment due to their diversity, recalcitrant nature and bioaccumulation. More disturbing is the fact that current wastewater treatment systems do not have the capacity to deal with these class of compounds. The quest to develop new technologies to mitigate the adverse effects of these contaminants has engendered new research interest on photo-enhanced processes. Photo-enhanced processes, with the potential of mineralizing environmental pollutants, currently appears to be the main viable technology for dealing with emerging contaminants. The process of contaminant degradation could either proceed via oxidation or reduction routes, referred to as advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and advanced reduction processes (ARPs) respectively. Recently, different processes have been incorporated into a single system in order to explore the synergy that ensue from the combination of these processes. These processes that are currently at the front line in dealing with various classes of emerging contaminants, whose presence in the environment continues to grow on a daily basis, are the focus of this review.

Keywords

• Photocatalysis
• Advanced oxidation processes
• Advanced reduction process
• Emerging contaminants
• Mineralization
• Waste water