Removal of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds (PhACs) in Wastewater by Ozone and Advanced Oxidation Processes

Abstract

During the last decades, many water treatment processes have been proposed to deal with the increasing water quality requirements demanded for the urban wastewater effluents (UWWE). Among them, the so-called Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) include a wide range of technologies based on the generation of very reactive and non-selective radical species with a strong oxidation potential that can readily remove not only PhACs but also other organic micropollutants. Together with ozone-based processes, these technologies constitute promising alternatives to be used as final barrier to remove these contaminants before the discharge of the effluents to the environment. This chapter focuses on the processes with higher potential to be implemented at large scale for the removal of PhACs in urban wastewater treatment plants: ozone-based, Fenton, and UV/H2O2 processes. Along the chapter, the fundamentals of these processes are introduced, including some of the more relevant modifications from the basic processes, and the more recent studies about their application for the removal of PhACs from UWWE at pilot and full scale are reviewed. From a scientific and technical point of view, the results from these researches confirm the successful removal of a wide range of PhACs and other micropollutants, although the absolute efficiency depends on the water matrix and the specific substances monitored along the treatment. As final remarks, other aspects are also included, such as the need to control the potential formation of by-products during the process and the required optimization of the processes to become competitive in economic terms.