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Spark it up: Municipal water can be rid of harmful substances using only electricity

Harmful organic substances, such as pharmaceutical residues, can be efficiently removed from wastewater using only electricity, say scientists who tested a process called pulsed corona discharge (PCD).

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Harmful organic substances, such as pharmaceutical residues, can be efficiently removed from wastewater using only electricity, say scientists who tested a process called pulsed corona discharge (PCD).

Pilot tests by researchers from Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland showed that pharmaceutical residues, their variants and other similar compounds degrade easily from wastewater because the process is non-selective.

"It does not require the vast settling tanks needed by the traditional approach to water purification so a membrane bioreactor plant can be built cost effectively in a smaller area", explains Kimmo Arola, a researcher at LUT's department of Chemical Engineering.

PCD is based on the instantaneous contact produced by an electric discharge between a plasma zone and water.

In this phenomenon, water molecules and oxygen in the atmosphere create strong oxidants which degrade organic compounds into water and carbon dioxide.

The study examined the formation of oxidants on the plasma-liquid-gas interface and their behaviour in the process.

The study also revealed that the momentary reformation of pharmaceutical substances can be considered a normal part of the reaction chain in the purification process.

It nevertheless makes the comparison of different technologies more difficult and highlights the importance of a non-selective process.

The results gave important new information on energy efficient oxidation, which is significant also in terms of the further development of the technology.

The efficiency of the process depends on temperature, flow rates, delays, and the location of the process in the wastewater treatment chain.

Kimmo Arola sees the process as an investment in the future. For example, in the future contaminants will become a challenge on a European and world scale because various hormones and drug residues will accumulate in watercourses over time.

 The traditional process does not remove all contaminants effectively enough. Harmful drugs and other compounds that are difficult to destroy in a biological process can be removed from the cleaned water produced by the MBR process more easily than from water cleaned in the traditional process.

With PTI Inputs

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