Ultrasonic treatment of endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products in water: A review

Abstract

The presence of contaminants of emerging concerns such as endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceuticals/personal-care products (PPCPs) is of concern because they are not completely removed during conventional water and wastewater (WW) treatment processes including coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation/filtration and biological activated sludge process. Recently, ultrasonic (US) treatment has been well-known as an advanced treatment process for the removal of complex inorganic and organic contaminants in water and WW. US treatment has shown substantial advantages, such as cleanliness, safety, energy savings, and negligible or no secondary pollution products. This review provides a summary of recent research on the removal of EDCs and PPCPs by US treatment and also provides information valuable for applications of US treatment in water and WW treatment. The removal of numerous EDCs and PPCPs of different classes was reviewed based on the current literature to (i) address key factors (water quality conditions (pH, temperature, background common ions, and promoters/scavengers), US frequency, power, and reactor type) influencing the sonodegradation of EDCs and PPCPs and their intermediates during US treatment, (ii) evaluate the effects of various catalysts and hybrid processes on sonodegradation, and (iii) discuss EDC and PPCP removal according to their properties. Additionally, areas of future research in US treatment for the removal of EDCs and PPCPs from water are suggested. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.