Degradation of micropolluants in flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors: Effects of H2O2 dosage and reactor internal diameter

The degradation of atrazine (ATZ), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and metoprolol (MET) in flowthrough VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors was investigated with a focus on the effects of H2O2 dosage and reactor internal diameter (ID). Results showed that the micropollutants were degraded efficiently in the flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors following the pseudo first-order ki-netics (R-2 > 0.92). However, the steady-state assumption (SSA) kinetic model being vital in batch reactors was found invalid in flow-through reactors where fluid mixing was less sufficient. With the increase of H2O2 dosage, the ATZ removal efficiency remained almost constant while the SMX and MET removal was enhanced to different extents, which could be explained by the different reactivities of the pollutants towards HO center dot. A larger reactor ID resulted in lower degradation rate constants for all the three pollutants on account of the lower average fluence rate, but the change in energy efficiency was much more complicated. In reality, the electrical energy per order (E-EO) of the investigated VUV/UV/H2O2 treatments ranged between 0.14-0.20, 0.07-0.14 and 0.09-0.26 kWh/m(3)/order for ATZ, SMX and MET, respectively, with the lowest E EO for each pollutant obtained under varied H2O2 dosages and reactor IDs. This study has demonstrated the efficiency of VUV/UV/H2O2 process for mi-cropollutant removal and the inadequacy of the SSA model in flow-through reactors, and elaborated the influential mechanisms of H2O2 dosage and reactor ID on the reactor performances. (C) 2021 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

The study investigated the degradation of ATZ, SMX, and MET in flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors, focusing on the effects of H2O2 dosage and reactor ID. Results showed efficient degradation of micropollutants with pseudo first-order kinetics in the reactors. The study highlighted the influence of H2O2 dosage and reactor ID on reactor performances and the inadequacy of the SSA model in flow-through reactors.