Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Processes are emerging technologies to mitigate environmental pollution by organic contaminants. These water processes are based on the in situ generation of hydroxyl radical (●OH) for oxidizing organic pollutants. Anodic oxidation with non-active anodic materials such as metal oxides or boron-doped diamond are the alternative most explored, but electro-Fenton technologies can present improved treatment performances in acidic effluents using carbonaceous air-diffusion cathodes. These electrochemical technologies have demonstrated their promising capability to remove persistent organic pollutants. Unfortunately, their scaling-up have been barely addressed. Herein, we will briefly discuss the treatment by these technologies of pharmaceuticals and azo dyes polluted wastewaters in a comprehensive, comparative and systematic manner emphasizing electro-Fenton processes. The evolution of dissolved organic carbon, aromatic intermediates, generated carboxylic acids and released inorganic ions, as well as pollutants decay have been considered to ascertain the degradation rate and mineralization degree achieved for each process. Afterwards, the scaling-up and the electro-Fenton reactors design will be addressed. Special emphasis will be driven towards the combination of electrochemical reactors with photochemical reactors to improve the treatment performance by solar photoelectro-Fenton process. The influence of operational variables such as current density, pollutant concentration among others on treatment performance, mineralization current efficiency or operational cost will be discussed. Furthermore, the possible coupling of renewable energies will be presented to discuss the potential applications and challenges of these systems.

Electro-Fenton process: From stirred tank reactor to autonomous solar pre-pilot plant

254th National Meeting (2017)

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