Design and Evaluation of a Reactor Prototype for the Removal of Emerging Contaminants from Industrial Sewage through Solar-Driven Photocatalysis and Ozonation

A prototype of a CPC-type solar photo-reactor was designed and constructed to be used in the treatment of synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater containing pollutants of emerging concern. In this reactor were applied several solar-driven advanced oxidation processes such as TiO2-mediated photocatalysis and ozonation processes, and the different sub-processes derived from them. The combination of photocatalysis and ozonation, known as photocatalytic ozonation, stood out as the most efficient system among the alternatives evaluated in this study. After 2 h of treatment, the maximum removal of COD was 38.1% and average solar UV energy consumption rates of 1.201 J/mg of COD removed. This paper also describes some of the main factors taken into account during the designing of the prototype reactor. Finally, some insights and kinetic estimations on the applied oxidation processes are presented.