KN1
Catalytic treatment of environmental contaminants of European Union concern Adrián M.T. Silva Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering - Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM), Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: adrian@fe.up.pt
We are facing new challenges with the spread of organic chemical micropollutants in water bodies. Water is a highly sensitive natural resource and priority substances (PSs) and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) have been found in the aquatic environment, often up to μg L-1 levels. In this context, Directive 2013/39/EU was launched to update the water framework policy in Europe, emphasizing the need to develop new water treatment technologies to deal with this problem.1 In addition, a dynamic watch list of substances was defined to allow targeted EU-wide monitoring of specific compounds of possible concern, the most recent version being included in Decision 2020/1161 to collect data supporting prioritization in future revisions of the PSs list.2 It is thus clear that alternatives are required to minimize water contamination, aiming at enhanced environmental and life quality in Europe. However, the problem is far to be solved, these pollutants being detected in effluents of urban wastewater treatment plants, seawater and even in drinking water.1-3 An overview of the author’s experience in the monitoring of these micropollutants, and in the synthesis, characterization and application of active and stable catalysts, including catalytic membranes, will be discussed in this lecture by considering different water/wastewater treatment technologies. Special emphasis will be placed on the use of carbon materials and their respective functionalization, since carbon materials with no added metals can be used as active catalysts in some of these processes. Three major questions will be answered: Which is the appropriate surface chemistry? What about textural properties? What type(s) of carbon material(s) are best suited in each case? The aim is to reveal how to perform a meticulous tailoring of the surface chemistry (surface oxidation and heteroatom doping) and texture (surface area, pore size, distance between adjacent sheets/stacks) of carbon materials with different dimensionalities. Besides the oxidation of EU-relevant chemical micropollutants by generating highly reactive radicals from O3, persulfate activation or H2O2 (added or photocatalytically generated in-situ), water disinfection (eliminating antibiotic resistant bacteria and their genes) will also be discussed.4-6 References [1] Ribeiro, A. R.; Nunes, O.C.; Pereira, M.F.R.; Silva, A.M.T.; Environ. Int., 2015, 75, 33. [2] Barbosa, M.; Moreira, F.F.N.; Ribeiro, A.R.; Pereira, M.F.R.; Silva, A.M.T.; Water Res., 2016, 94, 257. [3] Sousa, J.C.G.; Ribeiro, A.R.; Barbosa, M.O.; Pereira, M.F.R.; Silva, A.M.T.; J. Hazard. Mater., 2018, 344, 146. [4] Pedrosa, M.; Drazic, G.; Tavares, P.B.; Figueiredo, J.L.; Silva, A.M.T.; Chem. Eng. J., 2019, 369, 223. [5] Torres-Pinto, A.; Sampaio, M.J.; Silva, C.G.; Faria, J.L.; Silva, A.M.T.; Appl. Catal. B: Environ., 2019, 252, 128. [6] Vieira, O.; Ribeiro, R.S.; Pedrosa, M.; Ribeiro, A.R.L.; Silva, A.M.T., Chem. Eng. J., 2020, 402, 126117. Acknowledgments: This work was financially supported by project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-031049 (InSpeCt) funded by FEDER funds through NORTE 2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do NORTE and by national funds (PIDDAC) through FCT/MCTES (PTDC/EAM-AMB/31049/2017), and by project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000069 (Healthy Waters) supported by NORTE 2020 under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement through FEDER. The scientific collaboration under project Base-UIDB/50020/2020 and Programmatic-UIDP/50020/2020 Funding of LSRE-LCM, funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), is also acknowledged.
29
