Advanced Oxidation Processes in Water/Wastewater Treatment: Principles and Applications. A Review

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) constitute important, promising, efficient, and environmental-friendly methods developed to principally remove persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from waters and wastewaters. Generally, AOPs are based on the in situ generation of a powerful oxidizing agent, such as hydroxyl radicals (•OH), obtained at a sufficient concentration to effectively decontaminate waters. This critical review presents a precise and overall description of the recent literature (period 1990–2012) concerning the main types of AOPs, based on chemical, photochemical, sonochemical, and electrochemical reactions. The principles, performances, advantages, drawbacks, and applications of these AOPs to the degradation and destruction of POPs in aquatic media and to the treatment of waters and waste waters have been reported and compared.