Catalytic Processes for Removal of Emerging Water Pollutants

 An unprecedented increase in urbanization and industrialization ignited by an upsurge in the development of consumer goods. This has been steadily destroying the environmental balance and ecosystem and diminishing the water quality. Inevitably, we are facing one of the biggest challenges of the time, which needs to be resolved with proper remediation strategies to provide clean water as one of the essential components for human beings and agriculture, livestock, and several industrial survivals. With the growing demand for water and sustainable improvement, utilizing unconventional water supplies such as contaminated fresh water, brackish water, and wastewater is required. Although some of the traditional water treatment and purification methods still retain their importance. However, there is a need to provide faster and more efficient technologies beyond conventional methods for treating various contaminated water sources, including emerging pollutants. Recently, catalytic processes such as ozonation and electrocatalysis, including electrocatalytic oxidation, electro-Fenton process, photo electro-Fenton process, photocatalysis, and reduction by hydrodehalogenation, exhibited unique features and have opened wide opportunities in the field of water treatment. This chapter describes various types of emerging contaminants, their effect on human health and the ecosystem, and analytical methods of ECs quantification. Moreover, the features, mechanisms, and potential applications of catalytic processes in treating emerging pollutants are discussed in detail.

Keywords: Catalytic processes, Emerging pollutants, Environmental application, Fenton processes, Oxidation processes, Remediation, Water treatment.