Removal of emerging contaminants from municipal WWTP secondary effluents by solar photocatalytic ozonation. A pilot-scale study

[Display omitted] •Emerging contaminants were completely degraded by most of the AOPs applied.•Synergistic effects were observed when combining ozone and photocatalytic oxidation.•Iron-based photocatalytic ozonation led to EC-free, non-toxic, biodegradable effluents.•Iron-based photocatalytic ozonation could be a cost-effective tertiary treatment of municipal wastewaters. Ozonation, solar photocatalytic oxidation and a combination of both systems (i.e., solar photocatalytic ozonation) have been studied to treat a secondary effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant containing a selection of six emerging contaminants (acetaminophen, antipyrine, bisphenol A, caffeine, metoprolol and testosterone). Fe(III), Fenton reagent and TiO2 were used in photocatalytic experiments, which were conducted in a pilot-scale compound parabolic collector photo-reactor using solar radiation as energy source. Emerging contaminants (0.2mgL−1 each), at pH 3, were completely removed by photo-Fenton and single ozonation in 90 and 25min, respectively. Moreover, solar photocatalytic ozonation treatments (Fe(III)/O3/light and Fe(III)/H2O2/O3/light systems) were able to completely remove the ECs in about 20min with UV doses of 2–6kJL−1. However, the organic matter mineralization level achieved was limited (