Advanced oxidation processes for the treatment of mineral oil-contaminated wastewaters

Advanced oxidation processes (O-3/UV and O-3/H2O2) have been adopted for the treatment of mineral oil-contaminated wastewater. Air the experimental runs have been performed in a 0.2-1 semicontinuous reactor (equipped with a nominal power of 17 W UV lamp for illuminated experiments). The results of this investigation show that the system O-3/UV is capable of achieving high levels of purity ranging from 80 to 90% abatement of the inlet COD with reaction times not longer than 30 min. Modeling of the reacting system has been also attempted to evaluate the rate parameters involved in some reaction steps. A preliminary estimation of the costs of adopted AOP techniques is provided. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.