Unravelling the performance of UV/H2O2 on the removal of pharmaceuticals in real industrial, hospital, grey and urban wastewaters.

This study provides an integrated assessment of UV/H2O2 treatment of different real wastewater matrices: two urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) secondary effluents, greywater, hospital, and pharmaceutical industrial effluents. It considers micropollutant removal (up to 30 pharmaceuticals and 13 transformation products at environmental concentrations), energy efficiency and effluent toxicity. The complexity of the wastewater matrix negatively affected the UV fluence in the photo-reactor, scavenged hydroxyl radicals and hindered a proper H2O2 utilization thus reducing the treatment efficiency. At the optimal treatment conditions, overall pharmaceuticals removal was the highest for urban WWTPs effluents (69%-86%), followed by greywater (59%), hospital (36%) and industrial (17%) effluents. The ecotoxicity of the treated samples was reduced around one toxicity unit after the UV/H2O2 treatment in all cases except in industrial wastewater. The average observed removal in urban wastewater effluents and greywater for photo-susceptible, moderately photo-susceptible, and most photo-resistant compounds was 93%, 73% and 46% including outliers, respectively. The calculated electrical energy per order (EEO) values were 0.9-1.5 kWh/(m3·order) for urban WWTP effluents and greywater while for hospital and industrial effluents was much higher (7.3-9.1 kWh/(m3·order)).

Photochemical degradation of persistent organic pollutants (PCDD/FS, PCBS, PBDES, DDTS and HCB) in hexane and fish oil.

This study has investigated the photochemical degradation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) and some organochlorine pesticides, such as hexachlorobenzene (HCB) or dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) in hexane under UV irradiation at 254 nm. All pollutants were completely degraded after 3.5 h of exposition to the UV light. Moreover, this technique was applied to remove persistent organic pollutants from fish oil, with eliminations of a 34% for PCDD/Fs, 53% for PCBs, 59% for HCB, 67% for PBDEs and 73% for DDTs after 12 h of exposition to the UV light (254 nm). Dioxin-like PCBs increased their concentration after the treatment, probably due to the dehalogenation of other more chlorinated congeners. The fatty acids analysis of the fish oil revealed that the most important ω-3 fatty acids -EPA and DHA-were degraded to 67 and 70% of their initial content respectively. For these reasons elimination of persistent organic pollutants with photochemical treatment has limited applications for oils with food-purposes. However, it still can be a useful technique for decontamination of industrial oils.

Study of fuel oxygenates solubility in aqueous media as a function of temperature and tert-butyl alcohol concentration.

Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) is the most widely used oxygenate in gasoline blending and has become one of the world's most widespread groundwater and surface water pollutants. Alternative oxygenates to MTBE, namely ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), tert-amyl ether (TAME) and diisopropyl ether (DIPE) have been hardly studied yet. The solubility of these chemicals is a key thermodynamic information for the assessment of the fate and transport of these pollutants. This work reports experimental data of water solubility at the range from 278.15 to 313.15K and atmospheric pressure of ethers used in fuels (MTBE, ETBE, TAME and DIPE) due to the strong influence of temperature on its trend. From the experimental data, temperature dependent polynomials were fitted, thermodynamic parameters were calculated and theoretical models were used for prediction. Finally, the tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) influence in the solubility of MTBE and ETBE in aqueous media was studied.

New short aliphatic chain ionic liquids: synthesis, physical properties, and catalytic activity in aldol condensations.

This paper reports on the synthesis of new short aliphatic chain ionic liquids and the study of the temperature dependence of density, ultrasonic velocities, and ionic conductivity in the range of 278.15-338.15 K. Fourier transform infrared spectra establishes their simple ionic salt structure. Because of their polarity, the ionic liquids are able to dissolve polar solvents and inorganic salts, all of them showing high tolerance in hydroxylic media. The observed temperature trend of the studied properties points out the special packing of these ionic liquids, as well as the strong influence of the steric hindrance among linear aliphatic residues enclosed in anions and cations. One of them showed a very high melting temperature. A collection of slightly basic ionic liquids were used to test their catalytic activity in several aldol condensation reactions of some carbonyl compounds. The best conversions and selectivities were obtained using single ionic liquids, with no synergetic effects being observed when different concentrations of mixed ionic liquids were used as catalysts. In any case, the ionic liquid can also easily be recycled from reaction media, suggesting a promising method of process design for this kind of reaction.

Measuring and modelling experimental densities and ultrasonic velocities of aromatic and halogenated environmental pollutants.

The potential environmental impact of aromatic and halogenated chemicals from the petrochemical and steel industry is of growning concern. The present paper deals with the modelling and experimental determination of density and speed of sound at the range 278.15-323.15 of six aromatic and halogenated compounds (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Fluorobenzene, 2-Fluorotoluene and Chlorobenzene). Fitting equations were applied to the data in order to correlate for later computer based design. The estimation of the studied properties was made by the application of different theoretical procedures. The Mchaweh-Nasrifar-Moshfeghian model (MNM), an equation of state based on the generalized van der Waals theory which combines the Staverman-Guggenheim combinatorial term of lattice statistics with an attractive lattice gas expression and the Free Length Theory showed a good response at the studied conditions.

Coupling anammox and advanced oxidation-based technologies for mature landfill leachate treatment.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability to couple anammox process with advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to treat mature landfill leachate with high nitrogen and non-biodegradable organic matter concentrations (2309±96 mg N-TN L(-1) and 6200±566 mg COD L(-1)). The combination of a partial nitiration-anammox system coupled with two AOP-based technologies (coagulation/flocculation+ozonation and photo-Fenton) was assessed in terms of nitrogen and carbon removal. Total nitrogen removal efficiency within a range of 87-89% was obtained with both configurations without the need of any external carbon source. The COD removal efficiencies attained were 91% with coagulation/flocculation+ozonation and 98% with photo-Fenton. Applying the biological treatment prior to advanced oxidation processes-based technologies reduced the quantity of needed reagents giving attaining higher removal efficiencies. From a basic economical point of view and taking into account the results of this study, the combination of partial nitritation-anammox system with photo-Fenton treatment was more favorable than with coagulation/flocculation+ozonation treatment.