Theoretical energy consumption for mineralization of aqueous organic contaminant by advanced oxidation processes

In this work, a theoretical analysis method is proposed to analyze the theoretical energy consumption for the organic contaminant mineralization by advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) with the process coupling design framework. Moreover, the theoretical energy consumption for the mineralization of 1000 kg 19 representative organic contaminants (8 chlorinated alkyl hydrocarbons, 4 chlorinated alkenes, 3 brominated methanes, 4 aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives) by four possible oxidants in AOPs was investigated and compared with that of 1000 kg organic contaminants removal by physical procedures. The results show that the mineralization of the organic contaminants in AOPs is exothermic, and the theoretical energy consumption in AOPs is higher with orders of magnitude compared with that by physical methods. The theoretical energy consumption for organic contaminant mineralization decreases with the more C-H bonds being replaced by C-Cl or C-Br bonds in chlorinated alkyl hydrocarbons, ethenes or brominated methanes, and the theoretical energy consumption follows the order: chlorinated methanes < chlorinated ethanes < chlorinated propanes, which agrees with that by physical methods. Moreover, the theoretical energy consumption for mineralization of chlorinated methane with different oxidants in AOPs follows the order: O₃ > O^- > ·OH > O₂, while for other systems investigated, the order of the theoretical energy consumption is O^- > O₃ > ·OH > O₂.