In this paper, for the first time, faujasite Y zeolite impregnated with iron (III) was employed as a catalyst to remove a real cocktail of micropollutants inside real water samples from the Meurthe river by the means of the heterogeneous photo-Fenton process. The catalyst was prepared by the wet impregnation method using iron (III) nitrate nonahydrate as iron precursor. First, an optimization of the process parameters was conducted using phenol as model macro-pollutant. The hydrogen peroxide concentration, the light wavelength (UV and visible) and intensity, the iron loading immobilized, as well as the pH of the solution were investigated. Complete photo-Fenton degradation of the contaminant was achieved using faujasite containing 20 wt.% of iron, under UV light, and in the presence of 0.007 mol/L of HO at pH 5.5. In a second step, the optimized process was used with real water samples from the Meurthe river. Twenty-one micropollutants (endocrine disruptors, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and perfluorinated compounds) including 17 pharmaceutical compounds were specifically targeted, detected, and quantified. All the initial concentrations remained in the range of nanogram per liter (0.8-88 ng/L). The majority of the micropollutants had a large affinity for the surface of the iron-impregnated faujasite. Our results emphasized the very good efficiency of the photo-Fenton process with a cocktail of a minimum of 21 micropollutants. Except for sulfamethoxazole and PFOA, the concentrations of all the other microcontaminants (bisphenol A, carbamazepine, carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide, clarithromycin, diclofenac, estrone, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, lidocaine, naproxen, PFOS, triclosan, etc.) became lower than the limit of quantification of the LC-MS/MS after 30 min or 6 h of photo-Fenton treatment depending on their initial concentrations. The photo-Fenton degradation of PFOA can be neglected. The photo-Fenton degradation of sulfamethoxazole obeys first-order kinetics in the presence of the cocktail of the other micropollutants.

The development of technologies capable of eliminating a wide spectrum of micropollutants of diverse nature from waters becomes essential. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) seem to be the most promising technologies but the most appropriate AOP to remove the micropollutants is still under debate. In this study, for the first time, the comparison of the efficiency of TiO 2 heterogeneous photocatalysis and iron-impregnated faujasite heterogeneous photo-Fenton process is conducted towards the removal of a mixture of 21 micropollutants from a real river at low concentrations. The sampling area is situated on the Meurthe River, downstream the wastewater treatment plant of the city of Nancy in the northeast of France. To assess the impact of the micropollutants concentration and the matrix composition, two sampling campaigns have been performed at different periods of the year. Among the targeted micropollutants, 14 pharmaceuticals, 1 personal care product, 4 endocrine disruptors and 2 perfluorinated molecules are specifically followed. Their concentrations range from few ng L −1 to hundreds ng L −1. The adsorption of all the micropollutants is higher onto the iron-impregnated faujasite compared to that onto TiO 2 due to the larger surface area of the iron-impregnated faujasite. The iron-impregnated faujasite offers superior photo-Fenton oxidation efficiency towards the degradation of the micropollutants over the TiO 2 photocatalysis system. For almost all the micropollutants, the contaminants are totally removed after 30 min by photo-Fenton while a longer period is necessary by photocatalysis. A relationship between the removal efficiencies and the octanol-water partition coefficient (log Kow) of each micropollutant has been extracted from the data. A further economic evaluation confirms that the photo-Fenton process is also the better in terms of cost.

In this study the effect of pH, adsorption behavior and the chemical structures of two dyes (Methyl Orange and Bromothymol Blue) on the photodegradation rate constant, was investigated. Adsorption isotherm shows that the adsorption amount of dyes on TiO 2 surface is highly related to the pH of the solution and to the pKa of each dye. In acidic medium the adsorption percentage of Methyl Orange on TiO 2 surface was 76% facing 5% for Bromothymol Blue. The kinetic study shows compatibility between the degradation rate constant and the adsorption percentage on the surface. In basic medium the adsorption percentage of Methyl orange and Bromothymol Blue is similar while the degradation rate of Methyl orange is two times faster than that of Bromothymol Blue which reveals the role of chemical structure in the photodegradation rate.