Degradation of industrial additives by ozonation and UV/H2O2

• Grant number: 13/19323-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: February 01, 2014
• End date: April 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Sanitary Engineering - Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Roberto de Vasconcelos Lanza
• Grantee: Renato Falcão Dantas
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química de São Carlos (IQSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The presence of new contaminants called "emerging contaminants" have been a source of concern in the international scientific community and governments worldwide, mainly because the scarce information about its effects on the environment and humans. Among these compounds it can be cited pharmaceuticals, hormones, personal care products, industrial additives, etc. This problem becomes even more alarming because it has been demonstrated that conventional methods of treating water and wastewater are not able to effectively remove these compounds being discarded each year tons of these contaminants in water bodies. Thus, advanced methods of treating waters such as oxidative processes have gained particular attention as a viable alternative for solving these problems. However, from an economic viewpoint, the oxidative processes have disadvantages with respect to the conventional methods. This project proposes to find optimal doses of ozone in the ozonation process and hydrogen peroxide in the UV/H2O2 method in an attempt to make feasible the use of these technologies in Brazil. The major difficulty of finding the optimal oxidant concentration is the composition of the effluent, because industrial effluents composition varies dramatically depending on the economic activities of the regions, environmental factors, etc. We expect that the results of this project can establish a relationship between the composition of the effluent and the doses needed for the correct removal of contaminants proposed. Thus the use of advanced oxidation technologies would be feasible for the treatment of certain industrial effluents, which would be a big step for environmental protection in Brazil.