Contaminants, such as pharmaceutical products and pesticides, are continuing to pose an issue for water treatment facilities. Professor Patrick Drogui of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), and his team, investigated the effectiveness of a tertiary treatment process using electricity.
The advanced electro-oxidation process (EOA) utilizes two electrodes to break down non-biodegradable pollutants that have survived biological treatment. The electric current generates hydroxide radicals (* OH), which attack the refractory molecules. The primary advantage of this method is that it does not require the addition of chemicals to the water.
"EOA processes are revolutionary in the field of wastewater treatment. It's pioneering technology for treating wastewater contaminated by refractory pollutants such as pharmaceutical wastes," said Professor Patrick Drogui, co-author of the study published on June 18 in the prestigious journal Science of the Total Environment.
"We have shown that these electrodes are effective and produce large quantities of hydroxide radicals. They are also cheaper than the other electrodes currently on the market, which reduces the cost of the treatment," said Yassine Ouarda, first author on the study. "We tested the process on this particular molecule because it's one of the world's most widely used drugs. We have already tested it at INRS for some 15 different pollutants, as the process can be used for other pharmaceutical molecules," Ouarda continued.