A Bibliometric Study on the Application of Advanced Oxidation Processes for Produced Water Treatment

The growing global concern with water resources management has driven the search for more effective treatments for industrial effluents. The produced water is inserted in this scenario as one of the largest effluents generated by the oil industry. Besides, it cannot be discarded or reused without proper treatment due to its complex and toxic chemical composition. A bibliometric study was performed on the Scopus database from inception to 2020 in order to map the evolution of scientific publications related to the advanced oxidation processes based on reactions with ozone and Fenton's reagent. The results reinforced the efficiency of such processes for treating the produced water and the increasing of publications in the last few years, although the first document appeared only in 1995. China was the leading country in this research area, followed by Brazil and the USA. The most relevant journals were the Environmental Science & Technology and the Journal of Hazardous Materials. The research trends pointed out that the use of Fenton, photo-Fenton, and ozonation processes has been associated with other treatment methods to enhance the removal of contaminants in the produced water samples. However, the documents selected revealed the limitation on these processes due to the high costs with energy consumption. The present study can help other researchers mainly due to the few studies in this area, which demonstrates the importance of this prospection to support the development and application of advanced oxidation processes on produced water treatments.

Automated summary

The study found that the number of scientific publications on advanced oxidation processes based on reactions with ozone and Fenton's reagent has significantly increased in recent years, and these processes have been proven to be very effective for treating produced water. However, the high energy consumption costs of these processes limit their application.