Application of Advanced Oxidation Processes for the Treatment of Recalcitrant Agro-Industrial Wastewater: A Review

Abstract

Agro-industrial wastewaters are characterized by the presence of multiple organic and inorganic contaminants of environmental concern. The high pollutant load, the large volumes produced, and the seasonal variability makes the treatment of these wastewaters an environmental challenge. A wide range of wastewater treatment processes are available, however the continuous search for cost-effective treatment methods is necessary to comply with the legal limits of release in sewer systems and/or in natural waters. This review presents a state-of-the-art of the application of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to some worldwide generated agro-industrial wastewaters, such as olive mill, winery and pulp mill wastewaters. Studies carried out just with AOPs or combined with physico-chemical or biological treatments were included in this review. The main remarks and factors affecting the treatment efficiency such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), total organic carbon (TOC), and total polyphenols removal are discussed. From all the studies, the combination of processes led to better treatment efficiencies, regardless the wastewater type or its physico-chemical characteristics.

Cold Plasma Treatment for Efficient Control over Algal Bloom Products in Surface Water

“…These problematic issues made by microalgal biomass have become the main removal targets in surface water [11,12]. Therefore, newly suggested methods have been tested, such as modified local soil technology [3], advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) [13], and so on. In most cases, the amount of biomass has been quantified by either suspended solids (SS) [14], turbidity, or chlorophyll-a (chl-a) [15], and thus the control over the major indicator pollutants is crucial for water resources protection and security.…”

“…Among various options, the non-thermal or cold plasma process has been known to overcome the disadvantages of conventional AOP. Cold plasma is known to cause a variety of oxidative and chemical species, such as radicals (e.g., H•, O•, and OH• ) and molecules (e.g., H 2 O 2 and O 3 ), shock waves, ultraviolet, and electrohydraulic cavitation [13,[20][21][22][23]. In addition, the cold plasma process is considered to be a process combining the advantages of other AOPs, and has relatively few constraints on temperature and pressure [24][25][26].…”

Wastewater Treatment by Advanced Oxidation Process and Their Worldwide Research Trends

“…In fact, some IWWs are toxic or bio-recalcitrant to activated sludge treatment due to the high dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration. It was proven that AOPs can be used to partially degrade toxic compounds for obtaining effluents with more biodegradables prior to the biological process [19]. In this way, studies about combined AOPs and biological technologies for treating some complex IWWs have greatly increased in recent years [18,20,21].…”

Evaluation and Predictive Modeling of Removal Condition for Bioadsorption of Indigo Blue Dye by Spirulina platensis

“…Nevertheless, recent progress has been made in an integrated perspective of wastewater treatment that includes standard and biological technologies for pharmaceutical emerging contaminants [4][5][6][7], industrial chemicals [8,9], brewery wastewater [10], agro-industrial wastewater [11,12], heavy metals [13,14], and emerging compounds [15].…”