Could EB irradiation be the simplest solution for removing emerging contaminants from water and wastewater?

摘要

Newly observed presence of ‘emerging contaminants’, defined also Compounds of Emerging Concern, chemicalsrnwithout regulatory status and which impact on environment and human health are poorly understood has beenrnamply reported in wastewater and aquatic environments. ‘Conventional’ water pollutants have been describedrnfor decades and their impact on human health and the environment are known; effective technologies forrntheir removal are well established. This is not the case for most emerging contaminants: no effective removalrntechnologies have been discovered to date, to simultaneously remove all of the concerned contaminants,rneven though some techniques have been demonstrated to remove some contaminants to a certain extent. Radiationrnprocessing using electron beam (EB) accelerators and gamma irradiators has shown promising results inrnmany water-related applications. Radiation/EB processing is an additive-free process using short lived reactivernspecies formed during radiolysis of water for decomposition of pollutants. Isolated studies have demonstratedrnthe effectiveness of radiation, alone or in combination with other treatments, in the decomposition of refractoryrnorganic compounds in aqueous solutions and in the removal or inactivation, of microorganisms and parasites.rnThis review paper on this specific technology summarizes results of reported applications.