Oxidation of organic trace substances by ozonation, UV irradiation and advanced oxidation processes (ozone/H2O2, UV/H2O2, UV/ozone)< Back

The occurrence of persistent organic trace substances in groundwater and surface water can cause problems for the treatment of drinking water. If polar persistent organic pollutants (so-called POPs) cannot be eliminated by natural and semi-natural treatment steps (subsoil passage or aeration) and the adsorption onto activated carbon is not efficient, more advanced technologies have to be implemented. At the TZW the elimination potential of chemical oxidation processes for emerging contaminants is studied. In lab-scale experiments ozonation and the combined process ozone/H2O2 are investigated. To achieve a comprehensive overview of the efficiency of oxidation technologies, complementary experiments with UV irradiation and UV induced advanced oxidation processes (AOP, i.e. UV/H2O2 and UV/ozone) are carried out.
Substances under investigation included so far pharmaceutical compounds (antibiotics, analgetics, anti-epileptics, iodinated X-ray contrast media,..), gasoline additives (MTBE and re-lated components), disinfection by-products (NDMA) etc.. For the determination of reaction rate constants the experiments are carried out in demineralised water. In order to assess the oxidation efficiency under conditions as found in waterworks, natural waters ranging from tap water to surface water are additionally investigated as matrices.