Application of Radiation Technology in Removing Endocrine Micropollutants from Waters and Wastewaters—A Review

Abstract

Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) are increasingly being adopted as a post-treatment after conventional wastewater treatment, mainly due to the efficient removal of biodegradable organic micropollutants. Endocrine disruptors are a specific group of such micropollutants. Many scientific studies demonstrate their extremely harmful effects on living organisms, even at low concentrations in water and wastewater. AOPs based on the generation of reactive species using radiation technologies, these being gamma radiation and electron beam, are still not being used to their full potential. This publication presents the application possibilities of using ionizing radiation for the degradation of selected endocrine micropollutants in water and wastewater.

Photocatalytic Applications of SnO2 and Ag2O-Decorated SnO2 Coatings on Cement Paste

“…There are many widely used techniques for water treatment, such as filtration, flocculation, adsorption, biological degradation, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), and even combinations between them [2,[11][12][13][14][15]. However, some of these techniques may have limitations, including the need to use expensive equipment, slow processes, and low degradation efficiency [2,12,14,15].…”

A Review on Carbon Quantum Dots Modified g-C3N4-Based Photocatalysts and Potential Application in Wastewater Treatment

“…Predominantly, wastewater is the key source of water pollution, occurring particularly from chemical industrialization, which is carcinogenic and enormously poisonous in nature due to the presence of extensive large organic complexes [3]. The conventionally utilized environmental remediation processes, such as chemical oxidation, adsorption, incineration, and biological oxidation, have been employed in the mitigation of all types of toxic and organic water contaminants [4][5][6][7]. However, the performance of these techniques is not effective, owing to an incomplete degradation of the persistent organic pollutants and noxious sludge formation [7][8][9].…”

“…The conventionally utilized environmental remediation processes, such as chemical oxidation, adsorption, incineration, and biological oxidation, have been employed in the mitigation of all types of toxic and organic water contaminants [4][5][6][7]. However, the performance of these techniques is not effective, owing to an incomplete degradation of the persistent organic pollutants and noxious sludge formation [7][8][9]. Solar light-driven photocatalytic technologies offer a prominent strategy to resolve worldwide environmental issues [10][11][12].…”

“…noxious sludge formation [7][8][9]. Solar light-driven photocatalytic technologies offer a prominent strategy to resolve worldwide environmental issues [10][11][12].…”

Removal of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) by Free Radicals in Advanced Oxidation Processes

“…In the process of oxidation, the degradation efficiencies of PPCPs are realized mostly by the strong oxidization of free radicals, which are in situ generated during the reaction processes under appropriate conditions such as high temperature, high pressure, microelectricity, ultrasound, light irradiation and catalysts [45][46][47]. According to different mechanisms, AOPs could be classified into photochemical oxidation [48,49], catalytic wet oxidation [50,51], ultrasonic oxidation [52,53], ozone oxidation [54,55], electrochemical oxidation [56,57], Fenton oxidation [58,59], persulfate-based oxidation [60,61], radiation oxidation [62,63], photoelectrocatalysis [64,65], etc. Due to their high reaction rates, inducible chain reactions and final products, AOPs could effectively remove PPCPs and decompose them into micromolecule compounds from complex environments (Figure 3) [66].…”