Membrane and Advanced Oxidation Processes for Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products Removal

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are concerning contaminants in wastewater and possibly have adverse effects on aquatic organisms. However, some PPCPs cannot be easily removed from water by a typical wastewater treatment plant. Therefore, it is important to select the most efficient treatment process for removing PPCPs from water. This chapter first provides a review of PPCPs removal by advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) including UV/H₂O₂, UV/O₃, and O₃/H₂O₂. In addition, this chapter introduces AOP using photocatalyst as a low-cost and environmentally friendly technology for wastewater treatment. Photocatalytic materials, in particular titanium dioxide (TiO₂), are capable of producing hydroxyl radicals (•OH) under UV radiation, which allows effective decomposition of organic pollutants in water. Moreover, the characteristics of photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs), which combine photocatalyst and membrane technologies are provided. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of each presented method are summarized and discussed.