Insight into the coupled processes of electro-oxidation and other techniques for organic removal from water and wastewater

Abstract

Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) face significant challenges for industrial application, including mass transfer limitations, high energy consumption, and electrode material costs. The coupled processes of electro-oxidation and other techniques have the potential to address these challenges by overcoming some individual intrinsic limitations of each single process, the performances, mechanisms and applications of which require comparative analysis and discussion. This review systematically analyses the recent progresses for the coupled processes of electro-oxidation and other techniques including membrane filtration (MF), persulfate activation (PS), photocatalysis (PC), ultrasound (US), coagulation (CG), and ozonation (O3). The synergistic reaction mechanisms, advantages, and limitations of these coupled processes were discussed for organic removal from water and wastewater. The analysis demonstrates that the coupled processes generate significant synergies, achieving pollutant removal efficiencies exceeding 90 % in some systems while reducing energy consumption by up to 12 times compared to conventional methods. To address the remaining challenges in electrode durability and scalability, future efforts should focus on material cost reduction, reactor optimization, and pilot-scale validation for industrial deployment.