Micropollutants and emerging substances pose a serious problem to environmental sustainability and remediation, due to their widespread use and applications in everyday life. This group of chemicals is diverse but with common toxic and harmful properties. Their concentration in the environment is often very low; however, due to their recalcitrant nature, they are persistent in air, water, and soil. From an engineering point of view, the challenge is not straightforward. It is difficult to remove these contaminants from complex mixtures of substances by conventional methods used in wastewater and drinking water treatment. Ozonation and ozone-based AOPs are accepted processes of degradation of resistant substances or at least enhancement of their biodegradability. The aim of this review paper is to present research trends aimed at solving problems in the research and application of ozone-based processes in the removal of micropollutants from wastewater, thus preventing leakage of harmful substances into surface water, soil, and groundwater and facilitating the reuse of wastewater. Priority substances, micropollutants and emerging pollutants, as well as processes and technologies for their transformation and elimination, are briefly specified. Results obtained by the authors in solving research projects that were aimed at eliminating selected micropollutants by ozonation and ozone-based AOPs are also presented. This review focuses on selected alkylphenols, petroleum substances, and organochlorine pesticides.
The feasibility of ozonation process for 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (2-MBT) removal follows from results of ozonation of the model wastewater. Total removal of 2-MBT was observed after 20 minutes of ozonation. Very good reproducibility of repeated ozonation trials including sampling and analysis was observed. However, the majority of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) remained in the reaction mixture. Benzothiazole (BT) and 2-hydroxybenzothiazole (OBT) intermediates were identified during degradation of 2-MBT with ozone. In addition to the above benzothiazole derivatives, the creation of some other organic compounds follows from results of mass balance. The best fits of experimental data were obtained using the first kinetic model for 2-MBT and zero-order kinetic model for COD and DOC. The reaction time of 60 minutes can be considered as effective with regard to controlled oxidation in order to increase a portion of partially oxidized substances. Higher biodegradability and lower toxicity of ozonation products on respiration activity of activated sludge microorganisms was observed at higher ozonation time.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.