Removal of microcontaminants from MWTP effluents by combination of membrane technologies and solar photo-Fenton at neutral pH

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare microcontaminant degradation of a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant (MWTP) effluent by direct solar photo-Fenton treatment at neutral pH and a combined nanofiltration (NF)/solar photo-Fenton process at pilot plant scale. Photo-Fenton was run with Fe [(S,S)-ethylenediamine-N,N'-disuccinic acid (EDDS)] complex. The membrane pilot plant consisted of NF modules with a total surface area of 5.2 m(2), and photo-Fenton was run in a solar pilot plant (total surface of solar collectors 3 m(2), total volume of the plant 35 L) with an iron complexing agent at low iron (<0.2 mM) and H2O2 (<2 mM) concentrations. A QTRAP MS/MS system was used to evaluate micropollutant degradation (35 were evaluated, seven in concentrations over 1000 ng L-1) and >90% degradation took less than 12 min. It was demonstrated that the use of the combined NF/solar photo-Fenton process reduced required H2O2 consumption by 53% and energy by 67%, compared with direct photo-Fenton treatment of the same MWTP effluent. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.