TY - JOUR

T1 - Degradation of micropolluants in flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors

T2 - Effects of H2O2 dosage and reactor internal diameter

AU - Zhan, Lumeng

AU - Li, Wentao

AU - Liu, Li

AU - Han, Tao

AU - Li, Mengkai

AU - Qiang, Zhimin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021

PY - 2021/12

Y1 - 2021/12

N2 - The degradation of atrazine (ATZ), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and metoprolol (MET) in flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors was investigated with a focus on the effects of H2O2 dosage and reactor internal diameter (ID). Results showed that the micropollutants were degraded efficiently in the flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors following the pseudo first-order kinetics (R2 > 0.92). However, the steady-state assumption (SSA) kinetic model being vital in batch reactors was found invalid in flow-through reactors where fluid mixing was less sufficient. With the increase of H2O2 dosage, the ATZ removal efficiency remained almost constant while the SMX and MET removal was enhanced to different extents, which could be explained by the different reactivities of the pollutants towards HO•. A larger reactor ID resulted in lower degradation rate constants for all the three pollutants on account of the lower average fluence rate, but the change in energy efficiency was much more complicated. In reality, the electrical energy per order (EEO) of the investigated VUV/UV/H2O2 treatments ranged between 0.14–0.20, 0.07–0.14 and 0.09–0.26 kWh/m3/order for ATZ, SMX and MET, respectively, with the lowest EEO for each pollutant obtained under varied H2O2 dosages and reactor IDs. This study has demonstrated the efficiency of VUV/UV/H2O2 process for micropollutant removal and the inadequacy of the SSA model in flow-through reactors, and elaborated the influential mechanisms of H2O2 dosage and reactor ID on the reactor performances.

AB - The degradation of atrazine (ATZ), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and metoprolol (MET) in flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors was investigated with a focus on the effects of H2O2 dosage and reactor internal diameter (ID). Results showed that the micropollutants were degraded efficiently in the flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors following the pseudo first-order kinetics (R2 > 0.92). However, the steady-state assumption (SSA) kinetic model being vital in batch reactors was found invalid in flow-through reactors where fluid mixing was less sufficient. With the increase of H2O2 dosage, the ATZ removal efficiency remained almost constant while the SMX and MET removal was enhanced to different extents, which could be explained by the different reactivities of the pollutants towards HO•. A larger reactor ID resulted in lower degradation rate constants for all the three pollutants on account of the lower average fluence rate, but the change in energy efficiency was much more complicated. In reality, the electrical energy per order (EEO) of the investigated VUV/UV/H2O2 treatments ranged between 0.14–0.20, 0.07–0.14 and 0.09–0.26 kWh/m3/order for ATZ, SMX and MET, respectively, with the lowest EEO for each pollutant obtained under varied H2O2 dosages and reactor IDs. This study has demonstrated the efficiency of VUV/UV/H2O2 process for micropollutant removal and the inadequacy of the SSA model in flow-through reactors, and elaborated the influential mechanisms of H2O2 dosage and reactor ID on the reactor performances.

KW - Degradation

KW - Flow-through reactor

KW - HO dosage

KW - Reactor internal diameter

KW - VUV/UV/HO

U2 - 10.1016/j.jes.2021.03.012

DO - 10.1016/j.jes.2021.03.012

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34593192

AN - SCOPUS:85103324704

VL - 110

SP - 28

EP - 37

JO - Journal of Environmental Sciences

JF - Journal of Environmental Sciences

SN - 1001-0742

ER -