Decontamination of waterborne chemical pollutants by using atmospheric pressure nonthermal plasma: a review

Water pollution abatement is a topic of growing interest worldwide, mainly due to the large number of contaminants that continental waters may contain and the need for a safe wastewater reclamation and reuse in many sectors (agriculture, industry, aquifer recharge, and landscape restoration) and industrial recycling to reduce the end-of-pipe treatment. In this review, different advanced oxidation processes based on atmospheric pressure nonthermal plasma treatment for the removal of organic contaminants from waters are critically reviewed. Factors affecting the removal efficiency and energy yield are reviewed for specific organic contaminants (e.g. VOC, phenols, organic dyes, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, surfactants) and also for conventional water quality parameters (e.g. BOD, COD, TOC, , turbidity). Moreover, effects of operational modes (e.g. type of discharge, reactor configuration, plasma gas), catalytic processes (heterogeneous: TiO₂, NiO, and homogeneous: Cu²⁺, Fe²⁺, ), post-treatment reactions and external oxidant addition (O₃, H₂O₂) are also presented.