Photo- and Electrochemical Water Treatment

Globally, 2.1 billion people live without access to safe water, and about 159 million people collect their drinking water directly from surface water sources. This issue is particularly prominent in water-stressed areas, such as India, which has a rural population of around 700 million, 63 million of whom do not have access to clean water. Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs), of both a chemical and biological nature, are increasingly being detected in wastewater effluents around the world. Chemical CECs include pollutants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products, pesticides, hormones, and endocrine disruptors, and biological CECs include antibiotic resistant bacteria, pathogenic protozoans, and viruses. New technologies to remove the contaminants from water are urgently needed and photochemical approaches offer an exciting array of possibilities.

Covering chemical analysis, molecular biology methods and computational approaches important for the elucidation of mechanisms and evaluation of photochemical processes, this book presents advanced photochemical processes for the removal of CECs from water. Readers will find chapters on advanced photochemical treatment prototypes and pilot plants, and discussions on translation from lab to field-scale implementation. Examples include highly transparent materials, integrated membranes, adsorbents, and photocatalysts for enhancing the photochemical processes by direct sunlight induced reactions, photo-Fenton, and photo-electrochemical reactions. Discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies, this book is a great resource both for academics researching photocatalytic processes and for water treatment professionals.

Prof. Halan Prakash is as an Associate Professor, and Head of the Department of Chemistry, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, (BITS-Pilani), K K Birla Goa Campus, Goa, India . Prof. Prakash’s area of research includes Inorganic Photochemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry, and Environmental Chemistry. His current research is focused on the development of novel advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the degradation of organic pollutants, as well as inactivation of bacteria in water. He is an executive member of the Society of Environmental Chemistry and Allied Sciences (SECAS), India, and he was the convener of the fourth International Conference on Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP-2016). He is the leader for the drinking water work package of the Department of Science and Technology sponsored Indo-EU multi-consortium “PANIWATER” project.

Dr. Rita S Dhodapkar is Science Secretary, and Principal Technical Officer & AcSIR Faculty of CSIR-NEERI, India. She has nearly 32 years of research experience in water and wastewater management, and the application of advanced treatment technologies. She has worked on several national and international collaborative projects (Royal Society, UK, Global Challenges Research Fund-Research Council UK, CEMI, PTB, Germany etc.), and was awarded the Commonwealth Science Council training fellowship, Honorary Diploma-Seche Environment Award for excellence in Research in Wastes Valorization, at the 2nd International Conference on Engineering for Waste Valorization. She serves as an external advisory board member to EU Horizon 2020 project on “WATERSPOUTT”. She is the Indian Coordinator of the Department of Science and Technology sponsored Indo-EU multi-consortium “PANIWATER” project

Prof. Kevin McGuigan is Professor of Medical Physics in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and is the director of the RCSI Solar Disinfection Research Group which develops appropriate solar-based technologies for water treatment in resource-poor rural environments. His specialised areas of expertise are in solar disinfection of drinking water (SODIS), household water treatment, and storage, and design of health impact assessment field studies in low-to middle income nations. Prof McGuigan has coordinated field studies of these technologies across Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. He is the European coordinator of the EU Horizon2020 “PANIWATER” Project in India. In 2019 he received the UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.