UV-applications

Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP)

Elimination of Active Substances by Advanced Oxidation Technology

UV-oxidation, Photo-oxidation, Photo-Fenton or Photo-combined advanced oxidation processes for selective degradation in wastewater treatment.

Advanced Oxidation Processes are known to eliminate all type of substances. For better economic properties Enviolet have developed special AOPs, to selectively destroy active substances (e.g. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, Pharmaceutically Active Compounds) dependant of the matrix. These substances can be toxic or undesired for various reasons.

The elimination of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds (PhAPs) have to be removed now in many countries below PNEC.
Enviolet UV-oxidation is very suitable and an approved advanced oxidation process for elimination of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds.

In daily practice, Enviolet wastewater oxidation processes eliminate the following compounds/compound classes, for example:

  • Wastewater containing cyanides and organo-cyanides
  • Wastewater containing aromatic compounds such as benzene, phenol, toluene, PAH, biphenyl and substituted products of these compounds
  • Wastewater containing polyaminocarboxylates such as EDTA, DTPA, etc.
  • Wastewater containing phosphonates, phosphonate-based herbicides
  • Wastewater containing active pharmaceutical substances (API) such as hormones, cytostatics, antibiotics, etc.
  • Wastewater containing heterocyclic compounds such as 1,4-dioxane, tetrahydrothiopenes, etc.
  • Wastewater with complex structures such as pantoprazole, urapidil, etc.

A dedeicated list of API treated with Enviolet APOs you find here.

As a rule, UV-oxidised wastewater is completely detoxified after this wastewater treatment and, depending on the degree of degradation, can be discharged or pre-treated for subsequent biological wastewater treatment stages, as the bioavailability of the wastewater has been improved.

Destruction of 1,4-Dioxan in industrial wastewater

Enviolet has extensive experience with the removal of 1,4-dioxane in industrial wastewater:

Flow rates:
Smallest project: 6 m³/d
Largest project: 300 m³/day

Initial concentrations of 1,4-dioxane and wastewater matrix:
Highest concentration treated to date: 70 g/L 1,4-dioxane (treatment target: < 5 mg/L)
Typical range of 1,4-dioxane concentration: 500 mg/L ... 3 g/L.
The COD values of the wastewater were between a few g/L < COD < 50 g/L: In addition to the degradation of 1,4-dioxane, our plants also increase the biodegradability of the treated medium.

Treatment targets:
The treatment targets depend on the customer's specification and typically vary between 0.1 µg/L and several mg/L.