Tratamiento de efluentes reales mediante la sinergía entre proceso electroquímico y solución basada en la naturaleza: Eficiencia y perfil toxicológico

Abstract

With the increasing global water pressure, water pollution has become one of the major challenges to be addressed. However, the situation becomes even more critical since it has been demonstrated that traditional treatment (purification) methods are inefficient for certain types of water depending on the contaminant to be treated, particularly emerging contaminants or contaminants of emerging concern. In addition, considering the new trends in green chemistry and circular economy, it is necessary to search for new processes capable of degrading organic pollutants present in different types of water. Considering the above, the objective of this project is to evaluate the treatment of real groundwater through the coupling of two technologies focused on the degradation of recalcitrant contaminants and green economy approaches: assisted electrocoagulation and adsorption using activated carbon. Since the project focuses on the treatment of real water, the first phase will concentrate on the appropriate selection of the type of contaminant to be evaluated, which will depend on the initial characterization of the effluent. Subsequently, the removal and/or degradation efficiencies of each process will be evaluated separately in order to verify their contribution to the overall performance. Part of the novelty of the project lies in the synthesis of activated carbon through a self-generated reducing atmosphere, which, according to the literature, has not yet been evaluated in the region. This is of particular interest for the proper scaling-up of the process to more industrial or commercial levels, as it overcomes not only technical barriers (the use of a muffle furnace instead of a tubular furnace), but also economic barriers by avoiding the use of external inert atmospheres such as nitrogen, argon, or others. Likewise, studies based on assisted electrocoagulation have been scarcely reported, making the evaluation of activated carbon as a coadjuvant in contaminant removal through the electrochemical process both attractive and innovative. Finally, as part of the study and its innovative component, it is proposed to monitor the kinetics of the process (under optimal conditions) through microbiological tests. With this approach, the final stage of the project aims to evaluate the ecotoxicological potential of the treated water and, indirectly, of the treatment process itself.