Onofrio Scialdone

Abstract:

The electrochemical treatment of wastewater contaminated by organic and inorganic pollutants resistant to conventional processes is considered a very promising and appealing approach. The most interesting processes are the electrochemical direct oxidation, the indirect oxidation by electro-generated active chlorine, and the electro-Fenton. However, various problems limit the potential application of such methodologies [1], such as the cost of electric energy necessary to drive the process; the costs due to the addition of electrolyte for wastewater with low conductivity; the low current efficiencies due to the low mass transfer for low concentrations of pollutants. In this work, various innovative approaches to solve or minimize such problems will be presented and discussed, such as the utilization of microfluidic cells (for both direct anodic oxidation and electro-Fenton) [2,3], pressurized reactors (for electro-Fenton) [4], microbial fuel cells [5] and reverse electrodialysis [6]. It will be shown that the utilization of such processes can drastically improve the performances of various electrochemical processes for the treatment of wastewater. In particular, the activation of various molecules able to oxidize organic pollutants will be discussed.