Comparison of pharmaceutical abatement in various water matrices by conventional ozonation, peroxone (O3/H2O2), and an electro-peroxone process

Pharmaceutical abatement in a groundwater (GW), surface water (SW), and secondary effluent (SE) by conventional ozonation, the conventional peroxone (O3/H2O2), and the electro-peroxone (E-peroxone) processes was compared in batch tests. SE had significantly more fast-reacting dissolved organic matter (DOM) moieties than GW and SW. Therefore, O3 decomposed much faster in SE than in GW and SW. At specific ozone doses of 0.5–1.5 mg O3/mg dissolved organic carbon (DOC), the application of O3/H2O2 and E-peroxone process (by adding external H2O2 stocks or in-situ generating H2O2 from cathodic O2 reduction during ozonation) similarly enhanced the OH yield from O3 decomposition by ∼5–12% and 5–7% in GW and SW, respectively, compared to conventional ozonation. In contrast, due to the slower reaction kinetics of O3 with H2O2 than O3 with fast-reacting DOM moieties, the addition or electro-generation of H2O2 hardly increased the OH yield (