UV-induced Persulfate Oxidation of Organic Micropollutants in Water Matrices

The efficacies of UV photolysis, UV-activated persulfate (UV/PS), and combined UV/Fe2+-activated persulfate (UV/PS/Fe2+) systems for degrading of different organic micropollutants in ultrapure water and groundwater were examined and compared. The studied micropollutants belonging to the different classes involved an artificial sweetener acesulfame K (ACE), beta-lactam antibiotic amoxicillin (AMX), and endocrine disrupting compound 4-nonylphenol (NP). Among the studied systems, the UV/PS/Fe2+ process showed the highest performance both in degradation and in mineralization of ACE (UVA-induced systems; kapp = 0.126 1/min and 80.3% TOC removal) and AMX (UVC-induced systems; kapp = 1.383 1/min and 85.4% TOC removal), followed by the UV/PS process. In the case of NP trials, the application of UVC/PS systems was the most promising, and after careful adjustment of oxidant concentration, it demonstrated a considerable improvement in the target compound degradation (at a NP/PS molar ratio of 1/4 kapp = 0.024 1/min) compared with the UVC photolysis (kapp = 0.016 1/min). Irrespective of the applied UV-induced treatment process, the efficacy of target compounds degradation was lower in groundwater as compared with ultrapure water trials.