Wastewater treatment (Removal of pharmaceuticals)

Water has been considered an environmental issue, but it is becoming a strain of global importance. The climate change and global warming are inducing a dramatic transformation of freshwater resources that should be accessible for more than six billion people. A further solution, primarily put in practice by countries with high water stress, is the regeneration and reuse of urban wastewater. However, it is not free of associated risks as presence of pathogen microorganisms, micropollutants and other pharmaceuticals and personal care products. (PPCP). Water research points in the last decades to the use of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs), based on the generation of highly reactive oxidizing radicals, mainly hydroxyl radicals, for the degradation of persistent contaminants. Peroxymonosulfate (PMS), based on sulfate radicals, have gained importance due to its stability and further activation via UV radiation, heat or through transition metal. The search for efficient heterogeneous catalyst able to activate PMS has been widely reported to overcome metal leaching and catalyst’s recovery from the reaction solution.