Revolutionizing Wastewater Treatment: Exploring Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Solutions

Water is one of the essential requirements for life, and any undesired addition of chemical substances leads to its contamination and makes it unfit to be used. These days, the world is in a cancerous grip of environmental pollution in one form or another, out of which water pollution is a prime concern. This situation, if not controlled in a timely manner, will become a malignant problem for the survival of humanity on Earth. Although various conventional oxidation technologies are available for the oxidative degradation of pollutants or the inactivation of pathogenic contaminants using a variety of oxidants, such as chlorine, permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, etc., they all have drawbacks. Here, oxidative processes, such as the advanced oxidation processes (AOP), enter the scene. Complete mineralization of most organic pollutants is impossible by traditional oxidative methods. AOPs have almost revolutionized wastewater treatment as they are eco-friendly. Hydroxyl radicals are the main oxidizing species in these processes. AOPs entirely degrade organic contaminations and formless harmful products. Different methods of advanced oxidation processes for treating wastewater will be discussed in this chapter, such as photocatalysis, sonolysis, microwave/supercritical water oxidation, Sono-Fenton, etc.