Emerging photochemical processes involving iron for wastewater treatment

Resumen

Dark Fenton and photo-Fenton were employed to degrade Fluoroquinolones (FQs) (a class of synthetic antibiotics considered CEC) as model pollutants under different conditions: pH (3 - 8), pollutant concentration (3 - 300 ¿M), number of present FQs (1, 3 and 5), and water matrix (ultra-pure, salty and simulated wastewater). Experiments were performed at bench and pilot plant scales, employing sunlight (simulated and real) and ultraviolet light irradiations. Obtained pollutant abatement rates with Fenton-related processes were compared with photolysis, heterogeneous photocatalysis and H2O2/UV. At equal conditions, only through photo-Fenton process significant FQs mineralization were achieved. In those cases where total organic carbon had not exhibit a considerable decrease, the reason was attributed to the release of oxidation by-products. Since FQs are fluorescent, we decided to employ fluorescence excitation-emission matrices (EEM) in combination with the chemometric tool, Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC), to track their degradations. Although EEM-PARAFAC related studies are usually focused towards the characterization and monitoring of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in natural waters and wastewater effluents (work also included in this PhD Thesis following the DOM along the different stages of a drinking water plant), it is barely the first time that it is used for the purposes we have here proposed. The objective is demonstrating that EEM-PARAFAC could be a feasible complementary methodology for the study of fluorescent CECs degradations, avoiding the use of expensive and sophisticated techniques (e.g mass spectrometry), not always available. The other important aspect of the PhD Thesis was the use of ZVI-based Fenton processes. Some CECs such as nitroaromatic compounds, exhibit slow degradation rates even with AOPs. The development of new and more efficient ZVI treatment trains for pollutant degradation has been attracting great interest in the last few years. This approach consists of a first pre-treatment only with ZVI (i.e. reduction, dehalogenation), followed by a Fenton oxidation taking advantage of the released iron ions from the first step. In order to analyse the strategy's plausible advantages and potential drawbacks within wastewater treatment applications, reductive/oxidative treatment train based on commercial ZVI microparticles (mZVI) has been studied. The effect of the initial amount of mZVI, H2O2, pH, conductivity, anions, dissolved oxygen were analysed using p-nitrobenzoic acid (PNBA) as model pollutant. 83% reduction of PNBA 6 ¿M into p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) was achieved in natural water at initial pH 3.0 and 1.4 g/L of mZVI under aerobic conditions in 2 h. An evaluation of the convenience of removing mZVI after the reductive phase (before the Fenton oxidation one) was investigated together with mZVI reusability. The Fenton step against the more reactive PABA required 50 mg/L of H2O2 to achieve more than 96% removal in 15 min at pH 7.5 (final pH from the pre-reductive step). At least one complete reuse cycle (reduction/oxidation) was obtained with the separated mZVI. This approach might be interesting to treat wastewater containing pollutants initially resistant to hydroxyl radical (HO¿), but easily reduced, being able to decrease its toxic load as well as increasing its reactivity for a subsequent oxidation step.