Ozone can only decompose organic pollutants into smaller molecules and is difficult to effectively mineralize them. While, ozone combined with other advanced oxidation processes (such as US-O3, UV-O3 and E-O3) can improve the removal rate of refractory pollutants. Among them, the electrolysis-ozonation process induced by direct current (E-O3) was widely concerned due to effective generation of .OH for refractory pollutants degradation. However, the dependence on external power supply and relatively high energy consumption restrict its application. Therefore, a hydraulic-driven piezoelectric ozonation process (PE-O3) is firstly proposed, using BaTiO3 as piezoelectric material for ibuprofen (IBP) degradation. The synergy index of the PE-O3 process for IBP degradation reached 4.00, while the mineralization approached 85.23% in 120 min. The FLUENT and COMSOL software based on the finite element method (FEM) were used to simulate the pressure inside the flow field and the piezoelectric potential distribution on the BT surface, respectively. The maximum pressure appeared at both ends of the rotor. Moreover, there is a positive correlation between degradation efficiency, piezoelectric potential, and hydraulic gradient (G). Further study demonstrated that the gratifying degradation of IBP was mostly attributed to the massive production of .OH, which was mainly generated by a single-electron transfer path of O3. Besides, various refractory organics could be effectively degraded in the PE-O3 process, while a satisfactory removal of IBP was observed in the actual water matrix. Moreover, the removal of IBP only decreased by 4.60% without BT chemical state change and metal leakage after 10 cycles. The energy consumption of the PE-O3 process is reduced by 65.70% compared with E-O3 process. And, compared with other advanced ozone-based processes, the energy consumption of PE-O3 process is reduced by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. This study provides an efficient, environmentally friendly, and stable approach to the degradation of refractory organics by the potential utilization of residual hydraulic power in water treatment and delivery process.

Hydraulic-driven piezoelectric ozonation process for the removal of ibuprofen: a novel efficient, energy-saving, and stable method

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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