Advanced oxidation processes for wastewater treatment

Abstract Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are some of the most promising technologies for the degradation of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). These processes involve generation of oxidizing species that result in the degradation of contaminants including EDCs. Several AOPs including UV and ozone-based processes, Fenton and photocatalysis are widely researched with UV and ozone-based one commercially available for applications in wastewater industry. As a tertiary treatment, AOPs are generally used as a polishing step or for the degradation of recalcitrant compounds for breaking them down into simple and smaller fractions. A significant amount of work has been carried out using AOPs in combinations or in the presence of an oxidant or a catalyst to improve their efficiency in terms of degradation of the target contaminant and improvement of biodegradability. This chapter covers basic mechanism for generation of oxidants for selected AOPs for the degradation of EDCs, their application and an overview of the efficiency for the degradation of different EDCs.