Advanced oxidations of chloroacetic acids present in drinking water

Four oxidation processes involved ozonation (O-3), ultraviolet irradiation (UV), O-3/UV and TiO2/UV to degrade mono- and tri-chloroacetic acids present in drinking water were compared. The results showed that ozonation was relatively inefficient for the destruction of the chloroacetic acids tested. UV irradiation was much more efficient than ozonation. But the combination of UV with either O-3 or TiO2 powder did not make much difference. It was found that fiber-TiO2/UV was the best combination of the four oxidation processes tested, especially in regards to the refractory tri-chloroacetic acids. The TiO2 fiber was highly practical because it is easily separated and recovered.