article · Chemical Engineering Communications
Freshwater scarcity and complex wastewater discharges from industrial, hospital, mining, and landfill sources present severe environmental hurdles. These effluents carry persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, and emerging contaminants that standard treatment systems fail to eliminate fully. Advanced oxidation processes generate reactive species, including hydroxyl and sulfate radicals, to break down these resilient compounds. Both conventional techniques, such as ozonation, Fenton reactions, ultraviolet systems, electrochemical methods, and sonochemical approaches, and next-generation variants are examined. The latter incorporate novel catalysts, graphitic carbon nitride heterostructures, visible and solar photocatalysis, and hybrid configurations combined with adsorption. Effective real-world deployment depends on reactor configuration, operational parameters, energy and reagent demands, catalyst durability, sludge output, and the toxicity of reaction by-products. Scaling up requires addressing cost efficiency, regulatory frameworks, and resource recovery within sustainable water treatment operations.
Growing freshwater scarcity makes the effective decontamination of complex wastewater vital for public health and environmental protection. Conventional wastewater facilities leave behind hazardous, persistent chemicals from hospitals, mines, and factories. Examining advanced oxidation technologies provides a pathway to safely neutralise toxic substances, prevent environmental damage, and support long-term sustainable water reuse.
The technology addresses wastewater treatment across industrial, hospital, mining, and landfill facilities facing stringent contaminant regulations. While conventional methods are established, novel configurations such as solar photocatalysis and hybrid adsorption setups are undergoing pilot-scale evaluation. Industrial adoption requires resolving key operational hurdles, specifically lowering energy and reagent consumption, improving catalyst stability, mitigating toxic by-products, and ensuring cost-effectiveness for large-scale integration.
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Freshwater scarcity and the increasing discharge of complex wastewaters represent major environmental and societal challenges. Industrial, hospital, mining, and landfill effluents often contain refractory organic pollutants, heavy metals, and emerging contaminants that are only partially removed by conventional treatments. Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs), based on the in-situ generation of reactive species such as hydroxyl (•OH) and sulfate radicals (SO4•−), have therefore emerged as effective options for degrading persistent compounds. In this review, we discuss conventional advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) such as ozonation, Fenton and photo-Fenton processes, UV-based systems, electrochemical methods, and sonochemical systems. It also includes next generation approaches such as new catalysts, g-C3N4 based heterostructures, visible and solar light photocatalysis, AOP-adsorption combinations, and hybrid set ups. This study is novel in integrating conventional and novel AOPs for the treatment of real effluent. It emphasizes important points including reactor design, applicability to pilot and large-scale work, operational challenges, toxicity of by-products, and sustainability. The review is concerned with important factors influencing the treatment efficiency such as reactor design and operational parameters, energy and reagent consumption, catalyst stability, sludge generation, and toxic by-products. In conclusion, this points to future considerations on cost-effectiveness, regulatory integration, resource recovery, and the role of AOPs in sustainable wastewater management.
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DOI: 10.1080/00986445.2026.2718236
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