Affiliation:
1. Institute of Physical Chemistry of Romanian Academy, Romania
Abstract
Various physico-chemical and biological methods have been developed for the removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from wastewater. The application of these techniques, their combination, and the development of hybrid technologies to remove the persistent pollutants from water are presented in this chapter. The advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) such as photocatalysis, modified Fenton reactions, electro- and photoelectrochemical oxidation are evidenced as the main applied technologies. The combination and effects of direct and indirect oxidation methods and of the alternative greener technologies with traditional methods are presented as a function of pollutants' nature, volume, and concentration. For each method, results were obtained for various pollutants such as pesticides, hydrocarbons, dyes, surfactants, aromatic compounds, and pharmaceutical residues. The main objective of this chapter is the application of redox technologies in wastewater treatment by correlating redox processes with working conditions, pollutants, and oxygen reactive species.