Photochemical treatments (UV/H2O2, UV/O3 and UV/H2O2/O3) and inverse osmosis in wastewater: Systematic review

Every year, the bodies of water receive millions of cubic meters of wastewater from municipal, industrial, agricultural or livestock discharges, treated in an inadequate way or without treatment. The objective of this study was to carry out a systematic review of the frequency of use and effectiveness of the main photochemical processes and the complementation with other treatments such as it is reverse osmosis, used in different types of wastewater effluents. We searched multiple electronic databases (2010-2021), using a stepwise searching approach, supplemented with hand searching. In vitro or in vivo English language publications, original studies, and reviews were included. The database was made up of a total of 100 articles that met the minimum selection criteria, of which 25 articles the maximum scores for analysis. These articles report the improvement in the elimination of pollutants when the treatments are used together and not individually, in relatively short times ranging from 30 minutes of radiation to 8 minutes of exposure to the treatments. Regarding the type of water that was treated, most of the articles report the decontamination of natural wastewater, that is, from the industry without treatment. The percentages calculated to identify research opportunities or gaps in relation to photochemical processes (UV/H2O2/O3). As proposed some authors, if any value of the percentage of pre-selected articles (PAA %) is less than the value of the percentage of failure (MAPAA %), a research opportunity is revealed not addressed by the literature. Based on the percentage results, it is observed that there are no gaps with respect to the photochemical processes or that there are possibly no updates reported in the literature yet.