Amaya Santos, Gema; (2025) Life Cycle Assessment of Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Processes Applied to Wastewater Treatment. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The increasing presence of micropollutants in wastewater often exceeds the removal capabilities of conventional wastewater treatment methods, necessitating more effective and sustainable solutions. Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Processes (eAOPs) is a group of promising technologies to remove these pollutants, but their large-scale viability requires thorough assessment. This thesis comprehensively evaluates the environmental and economic performance of eAOPs for micropollutants removal in wastewater. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was employed across four distinct case studies. First, a baseline scenario involving ozonation, a well-established advanced oxidation technology, was analysed. Subsequently, four emerging lab-scale eAOP technologies were compared against ozonation, to identify the most promising candidates for further development. Next, the research explores the potential of a scaled-up eAOP technology based on Photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) oxidation. This technology is compared to full-scale ozonation to understand its potential for large-scale implementation. Finally, the potential of eAOPs in resource recovery from wastewater was explored, when incorporated as a pre-treatment in palladium (Pd) recovery using ion exchange. Key findings from the LCA of a full-scale ozonation plant revealed that operational energy consumption for ozone production was the dominant environmental impact driver (~90 %). Impact reduction achieved through renewable energy use (~70 %) and reuse of components upon decommission (~75 %). Comparison of lab-scale eAOPs highlighted the critical impact of reactor durability on overall sustainability and cost, with lab-scale ozonation outperforming eAOPs. The LCA of a scaled-up PEC oxidation system showed the used phase as the main impact contributor (60-95 %), while demonstrating a reduction in environmental impact contribution compared to ozonation (70- 80 %) and other solar-based AOPs in literature. The LCA results of Pd recovery from wastewater demonstrated using eAOP pre-treatment demonstrated substantial benefits, reducing mineral resource use by two orders of magnitude and climate change by up to 25-fold, alongside enhanced recovery efficiency. While eAOPs offer significant potential for sustainable wastewater treatment, their environmental performance is contingent on technology maturity and scale. Optimization strategies and further investigation into transformation by-products are crucial for a complete evaluation. This thesis provides a comprehensive LCA framework for eAOPs, addressing existing knowledge gaps and encompassing industrial-scale applications and resource recovery.

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