Application of hydrodynamic cavitation reactors for treatment of wastewater containing organic pollutants: Intensification using hybrid approaches

Abstract

The concentration of hazardous pollutants in the wastewater streams has to keep below a certain level in order to comply with the stringent environmental laws. The conventional technologies for wastewater treatment have drawbacks in terms of limited applicability and efficiency. Utilization of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) reactors for the degradation of pollutants at large scale has shown considerable promise over last few years, due to higher energy efficiencies and low cost operation based on lower consumption of chemicals for the treatment. The present work overviews the degradation of different pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, pesticide, phenolic derivatives and dyes, as well as the treatment of real industrial effluents using hybrid methods based on HC viz. HC/H 2 O 2 , HC/Ozone, HC/Fenton, HC/Ultraviolet irradiations (UV), and HC coupled with biological oxidation. Furthermore, based on the literature reports, recommendations for the selection of optimum operating parameters, such as inlet pressure, solution temperature, initial pH and initial pollutant concentration have been discussed in order to maximize the process intensification benefits. Moreover, hybrid methods based on HC has been demonstrated to show good synergism as compared to individual treatment approach. Overall, high energy efficient wastewater treatment can be achieved using a combined treatment approach based on HC under optimized conditions.