Kinetics and energy efficiency for the degradation of 1,4-dioxane by electro-peroxone process

Degradation of 1,4-dioxane by ozonation, electrolysis, and their combined electro-peroxone (E-peroxone) process was investigated. The E-peroxone process used a carbon-polytetrafluorethylene cathode to electrocatalytically convert O₂ in the sparged ozone generator effluent (O₂ and O₃ gas mixture) to H₂O₂. The electro-generated H₂O₂ then react with sparged O₃ to yield aqueous OH, which can in turn oxidize pollutants rapidly in the bulk solution. Using p-chlorobenzoic acid as OH probe, the pseudo-steady concentration of OH was determined to be ~0.744×10^-9mM in the E-peroxone process, which is approximately 10 and 186 times of that in ozonation and electrolysis using a Pt anode. Thanks to its higher OH concentration, the E-peroxone process eliminated 96.6% total organic carbon (TOC) from a 1,4-dioxane solution after 2h treatment with a specific energy consumption (SEC) of 0.376kWhg^-1 TOC_removed. In comparison, ozonation and electrolysis using a boron-doped diamond anode removed only ~6.1% and 26.9% TOC with SEC of 2.43 and 0.558kWhg^-1 TOC_removed, respectively. The results indicate that the E-peroxone process can significantly improve the kinetics and energy efficiency for 1,4-dioxane mineralization as compared to the two individual processes. The E-peroxone process may thus offer a highly effective and energy-efficient alternative to treat 1,4-dioxane wastewater.