Procesos secuenciales de adsorción/oxidación con H2O2 para la eliminación de compuestos orgánicos volátiles

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are one of the main groups of odour causing compounds in Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP). Adsorption technology is already established, in recent years the interest for the optimization of the costs associated with this technique has grown significantly. In particular, there are different options, from the use of low cost adsorbents, to reducing costs associated with carbon regeneration process. In this thesis, the adsorption of the three VOCs on sewage sludge based adsorbents was studied. It was proved that adsorbents obtained by chemical activation of sewage sludge with alkaline hydroxides are comparable to commercial activated carbons (ACs). Likewise, the adsorption of multicomponent gaseous streams was also studied. Related to the ACs regeneration, it was proposed a regeneration treatment of VOC saturated ACs with H2O2 based on advanced oxidation processes (AOP). The influence of the surface chemistry of ACs in this regeneration process was also studied.