Radiation Treatment of Wastewater for Reuse with Particular Focus on Wastewaters Containing Organic Pollutants

Chronic shortages of water in arid and semi-arid regions of the world and environmental policy regulations have stimulated the use of appropriate technologies in treating wastewater for reuse, for example, in urban irrigation, industrial uses (cooling, boilers, and laundry), gardens and parks, cleaning purposes, etc. Additionally, wastewater treatment is becoming ever more critical in large industrial centres due to diminishing water resources, increasing water disposal costs, and stricter discharge regulations that have lowered permissible contaminant levels in waste streams. Industrial effluents often carry chemical contaminants such as organics, petrochemicals, pesticides, dyes and heavy metal ions. The standard biological treatment processes commonly used for wastewater treatment are not capable of treating many of the complex organic chemicals that are found in varying quantities in the wastewaters (e.g. persistent organic pollutants, POPs). Radiation-initiated degradation of organics helps to transform various pollutants into less harmful substances or reduced to the levels below the permissible concentrations. Studies in several Member States (MS) have demonstrated the usefulness and efficiency of radiation technology for treatment of different organic pollutants. The lack of comparative data in pilot scale studies using radiation technique (alone or in combination with other methods) is the main problem in further utilization of this method for wastewater treatment. There is a need to study further the radiation effects, reliability and cost on specific group of organic pollutants in cooperation with other stakeholders who are involved in using other technologies.
This CRP was formulated based on the recommendation of a consultants meeting held in 2008 and improved further in communication with external experts, two SAGNA members and discussed and revised in a meeting with the past-congress president of IWA-World Water Congress and a well known international expert from the Institute for Water Quality, Resources and Waste Management of Vienna University of Technology.
The CRP intends (i) to study the effects, reliability and costs of room temperature radiation processing technology and determine the optimized radiation dose and procedures, in combination with other processes, to treat wastewater contaminated with low and high concentration of organic compounds; (ii) to validate analytical methods to characterize and evaluate effects of by-products in treated wastewaters; (iii) to obtain data on radiation method to treat wastewater with different concentration of organic pollutants and compare it with data from conventional and novel technologies; (iv) to develop guidelines for selection of areas where the radiation treatment has high potential for rendering treated wastewater suitable for industrial and irrigation purposes.
The CRP teams envisaged to participate will comprise members drawn from industry (effluent managers), environmental regulatory authorities, and Members of International Water Association (IWA) apart from radiation technology and analytical scientists.