Developing a new advanced treatment technique for micropollutants removal from water and wastewater

Novel cost-efficient Fenton-like catalysts were prepared for the degradation of organic molecules in aqueous solutions. Porous activated carbons (ACs) were directly impregnated with Fe2+ solutions of different concentrations using the wet impregnation method. Their efficiency, as Fenton-like catalysts, was studied. Photo-Fenton tests were performed to establish the performance of the prepared Fe-impregnated ACs in relation to the degradation of organic micropollutants in aqueous solution, under different conditions. Photo-catalytic tests were carried out by means of a laboratory photo-reactor. The influence of several parameters such as solution pH value, initial concentration of the model pollutant, and hydrogen peroxide dose on the process performance was investigated. The ACs and prepared catalysts were characterized by nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms at 77K, FTIR, SEM, and thermogravimetric analyses. The total Fe content of the synthesized composites was estimated by the phenanthroline method using UV-Vis spectrophotometry. Photo-catalytic tests were performed in monosolute or mix solutions of MPs in order to compare the efficiency of various conventional AOPs with that of photo-Fenton-peroxone process. The results show an increase in the degradation rate in case of the heterogeneous photo-Fenton-peroxone process.