A life cycle assessment of solar-based treatments (H2O2, TiO2 photocatalysis, circumneutral photo-Fenton) for the removal of organic micropollutants

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2021

Authors

Pesqueira, JFJR (Author) FEUP; Manuel Fernando R. Pereira (Author) FEUP; Adrián M. T. Silva (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Science of the Total Environment

Vol. 761

Pages: 1-11

ISSN: 0048-9697

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citations

Scopus - 3 Citations

Associated Projects

InSpeCt - Identifying and interrupting micropollutants of EU concern by using Smart Carbon materials

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00T-1SH

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143258

Abstract (EN): Micropollutants have been linked to freshwater and human toxicity. Their occurrence in water bodies arises from different causes, including the discharge of effluents from conventional urban wastewater treatment plants, which are not designed for their removal. The addition of an advanced treatment process for this purpose will allow a toxicity reduction; however, such will also imply further resources and energy use resulting in other environmental impacts. Energy use is a particularly relevant hotspot of the environmental impacts associated with advanced treatments; therefore, solar-based treatments have great potential in this field. The present study assessed the environmental impacts via life cycle assessment (LCA) of five solar-based treatments - solar photolysis (with and without H2O2), photocatalysis using TiO2 (with and without H2O2) and circumneutral photo-Fenton - using a pilot-scale compound parabolic collector photoreactor to select the most suitable option for the removal of micropollutants (carbamazepine, diclofenac and sulfamethoxazole; 5 mu g/L) from a secondary-treated wastewater. The ranking of solar treatments per highest generated impacts is, overall, as follows: circumneutral photo-Fenton > TiO2-P25/H2O2 > TiO2-P25 > solar/H2O2 > solar. While solar photolysis uses fewer resources and energy, thus generating lower environmental impacts, the common incomplete mineralization of the parent micropollutants implies that toxicity reduction cannot be guaranteed in this case. Aiming for a balance between ecotoxicity reduction and the impacts caused by the application of each technology, the solar TiO2-P25 treatment, which was here investigated by LCA for the first time to remove organic micropollutants from secondary-treated urban wastewater, appears to be the most suitable option at the studied conditions (and when TiO2 is reused at least 5 times). One of the environmental downfalls of the assessed treatments is the energy required to produce the chemicals, and so the importance of minimizing external energy use during the application of advanced treatment processes is reinforced.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 11