Scaling-up the use of macroscopic photo-CWPO La1-xTixFeO3/SiC alveolar foam catalyst for solar water treatment against micropollutants

[Display omitted] •La1-xTixFeO3/SiC foam photo-CWPO catalyst was used at pilot-plant scale in CPC reactor.•Emerging organic micropollutants were efficiently removed in different water matrices.•The removal efficiency under natural solar light was highly affected by the water complexity.•H2O2 and sodium persulfate were used as oxidants with high efficiency.•The catalyst showed no Fe leaching and very good reusability under realistic conditions. Current wastewater treatment plants are not prepared for the removal of micropollutants like phenol, pharmaceuticals and pesticides in water. As their release into the environment has adverse consequences towards the living organisms of ecosystems, the engineering of novel sustainable processes able to ultimately remove the emerging organic contaminants is an objective of paramount importance. Hereby we report for the first time on the successful scale-up of a macroscopic photo-CWPO La1-xTixFeO3/SiC alveolar foam catalyst used at the pilot-plant scale inside a Compound Parabolic Collectors based photoreactor. The removal of a span of organic micropollutants in water matrices of different complexity was efficiently realized under natural solar radiation using H2O2 or persulfates as oxidizing agent. The water matrix composition affected the efficiency of the degradation process. Using H2O2, for a collected energy of ca. 27 KJ/mol, the rate of micropollutant removal ranged from 53 % to 95 % in distilled water depending on the micropollutant in a cocktail configuration. It was lowered to the 17–66 % range in tap water, and to the 8–42 % range in simulated urban wastewater. The results demonstrated the promise of using sodium persulfate as oxidant instead of H2O2, with a better efficiency towards the removal of most of the micropollutants tested. The use of the sodium persulfate oxidant allows for overcoming the drawbacks associated to the treatment of real water matrices observed using H2O2, as better performances were reached when increasing the water matrix complexity. Complete removal of carbamazepine and diclofenac micropollutants was reached in tap water and simulated urban wastewater for ca. 27 KJ/mol of collected energy. The degradation performances combined to the catalyst robustness make this water treatment technology promising for operating in a continuous way under natural solar light.