Photonic Removal of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products From Wastewater

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products( PPCPs) have attracted much recent attention as widespread emerging environmental contaminants,both due to their near ubiquitous detection in surface waters adjacent urban areas,but also their potential to generate endocrine modulating responses at low concentrations in exposed organisms. Although usually being detected in environmental matrices only atμg /L or ng /L ranges,the adverse effects in exposed aquatic organisms have been widely reported and prompted concerns over the potential for human health effects. Consequently,there has been increasing research attention paid to cost-effectively removing PPCPs. Numerous studies have examined the occurrence and fate of PPCPs in wastewater and adjacent receiving environments,focusing on their removal by conventional and advanced treatment processes at varying scales ranging from the lab to bench experiments to full treatment plant manipulations. This review will discuss various photonic assisted advanced oxidization treatments such as photocatalytic degradation, photolysis, ozonation and photoelectrolysis with advantages and limitations of each treatment approach( or combinations thereof) in removing PPCPs. Elucidating the fate and effects of PPCPs in the environment,and the potential of recent technologies to limit their environmental contamination,are the key elements in protecting future ecosystem and human health.