Session: Aquatic Photochemistry:

Several studies related to the effects of water contamination by emerging pollutants are being currently developed. Due to lack of information about these pollutants, conventional treatment techniques are not efficient for the removal of many emerging pollutants from water, requiring additional steps to the treatment. Advanced oxidation processes provide high efficiency in the degradation of organic contaminants. This work studied the efficiency of Photo Fenton and UV-activated persulfate to treat the emerging pollutant 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2). Experiments were carried out in a photochemical reactor using two fluorescent black light lamps of 40 W. The results showed that the treatment for water contaminated with the emergent pollutant EE2 in the presence of UV radiation to activate the persulfate under favourable conditions to produce the sulfate radical was effective. The results also indicated that at extremely high pH (pH ≥ 12), the degradation of the pollutant was inhibited, possibly due to the formation of other radicals that are not oxidizing or with lower oxidation potential. For the UV-activated persulfate system, the maximum EE2 decomposition (97%) in 60 minutes was reached through the activation of sodium persulfate at 10 g / L and pH = 3. For the trials using Photo Fenton, satisfactory results were archived for the molar ratio H₂O₂:Fe²⁺at about 30:1, degrading about 97% of EE2.

Celyna Rackov

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