On the Comparison and the Synergistic Effect of Chemical AOP and Hydrodynamic Cavitation

Abstract

The recent regulation policies and an increasing public concern are focusing on the presence of priority and emerging pollutant in water. In order to obtain high efficiencies on their abatement in the prevention and remediation of water sources, the Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP) are among the most interesting and reliable opportunities. Although they have shown a great potential, their employment in waste water treatment plants is still unsatisfactory mainly because of the elevated treatment cost. A great opportunity is given by hybrid cavitation techniques offering low energy consumption. When applied individually hydrodynamic cavitation (HC), often gives insufficient removal percentage degradation, but its efficacy can be significantly enhanced by combining it with other advanced oxidation processes such as Fenton-like treatments. The research study presents the preliminary results of an experimental campaign with the aim of optimizing the process of hybrid HC oxidation and individuating its feasibility in removing emerging pollutants. This paper focuses on the parallel and combined treatment of HC/Fenton and HC/Activated Persulfate, by evaluating the synergistic index and the energy consumption in the p- nitrophenol (pNP) degradation.