CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.
Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .
Exploitable results
A European industrial consortium has been created for the design, manufacturing, installation and set-up of turnkey SOLARDETOX(R) plants used for the treatment of hazardous and non-biodegradable water contaminants using solar light. The process is based on the solar photo-catalytic mineralization of organic compounds dissolved in water and it is addressed to the treatment of persistent industrial contaminants. This Consortium has performed a comprehensive research and technological development to obtain a state-of-the-art technology, which has been validated with the construction of a full demonstration plant at an industrial environment. Initial market analysis, shows a promising number of possible applications to this remarkable environmental technology that has been validated even in non-sunny regions such as the West of Germany. The analysed results also show that this technology could be fully competitive against conventional wastewater treatment processes.
The Solar Photo-catalytic Detoxification Process consists of the utilization of the near-ultraviolet part of the solar spectrum (wavelength shorter than 380 nanometers.), to promote a strong oxidation reaction. This reaction takes place when such UV radiation photo-excites a TiO(2) (titanium dioxide) semiconductor catalyst in the presence of oxygen. In these circumstances, oxidizing species, either bound hydroxyl radical (OHo) or free holes, which attack oxidizable contaminants, are generated producing a progressive breaking of molecules yielding to CO(2), H(2)O and dilute mineral acids. The most commonly used catalyst is the semiconductor TiO(2) (cheap, non-toxic and abundant product) used in paint manufacturing. Initially, the process is able to oxidize numerous organic substances owing to its very high positive oxidation potential. This process has shown to be very promising for the treatment of contaminated water, air and soil. In recent years, it has also shown great potential for water disinfection, making it possible for a wide number of applications.
The development and assessment of a commercial solar technology to carry out this process, which did not exist before, can be considered as the main benefit achieved by the project. The developed technology is based on simple, inexpensive and efficient non-concentrating Compound Parabolic Collector (CPC) technology, as this type of solar collectors can efficiently capture the diffused UV sunlight as well as the direct beam.
The direct industrial application of all this research, when fully ready for marketing, will be a solar detoxification system for the treatment of industrial emissions (at medium/low concentration levels) of hazardous organic water contaminants, including complex mixtures, from almost any chemical activity, using solar radiation as energy input. Specifically, the technology is addressed to the treatment of non biodegradable chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents present in water from any industrial activity which uses it, such as fine chemical processes, printing, surface cleaning, pharmaceutical manufacturing, car coating, dry cleaning, textile and paper surfaces, coating materials manufacturing, etc.
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