Study of catalytic iron ozonation for the removal of emerging contaminants

Abstract

During last century, water has been consumed by human for agriculture, industrial processes and municipal use in huge amounts. This, together with the increase on the water quality standard, leads to water scarcity in many parts of the world. Emerging contaminants, which are organic recalcitrant compounds found recently in water, compromise nowadays the quality of the availability fresh water due to their unknown effect on human and environment health. This research was focused on the study of an Advanced Oxidation Process (AOPs), the Zero Valent Iron catalytic ozonation (O3/ZVI), to treat spiked miliQ and bottled water at pH = 7.5 with a contaminant pesticide model: acetamiprid. Results showed that the type of water used had an effect on acetamiprid degradation being faster for miliQ water. These results were attributed to the concentration of bicarbonates present in bottled water which were demonstrated to have a scavenging effect of free hydroxyl radicals which are responsible of acetamiprid degradation. Also the presence of organic matter (NOM) showed a positive effect on single ozonation performance but an opposite outcome on O3/ZVI degradation capacity. This research increases the knowledge about O3/ZVI for further scientific research and technical applications.