Plasma mediated degradation of endocrine disrupting chemicals in water

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A great number of chemicals used in everyday manufacturing processes have been identified as being capable of disrupting the normal function of the hormonal system in both humans and wildlife; collectively these are known as Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDC's). The catastrophic damage caused by the release of EDC's in to the aquatic environment is well documented and a clear casual link has been established between the release of EDC's and an alarming reduction in the population of molluscs, crustaceans, insects, fish and amphibians both in the UK and elsewhere. Strict legislation is in place to ensure that significant amounts of EDC's do not reach the aquatic environment; this however, places a great financial burden on wastewater producers. Conventional wastewater treatment facilitates are ill designed to cope with such chemicals hence there is a real need to develop new technologies capable of rapidly and efficiently degrading EDC's in water.Recent interest has focused on the use of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP's) to degrade EDC's in water. Methods such as the Fenton reaction and Photocatalysis are effective; however, the need to provide external oxidising agents greatly reduces their cost-effectiveness. This study considers plasma, the fourth state of matter, generated directly in-contact with liquid to produce an abundance of highly oxidising species at the point of need. Cutting edge electrical and optical diagnostics in combination with innovative engineering techniques are used to explore the interaction between the highly non-equilibrium plasma phase and the liquid phase. The relationship between plasma excitation mechanism, electrical efficiency, reactor design and EDC degradation efficiency will be established and compared directly with other AOP's reported in the literature. By developing this transformative technology there is a real opportunity to addresses a pressing environmental challenge, whilst simultaneously delivering scientifically excellent, industrially relevant research. This adventurous, multidisciplinary research project lies at the interface between physical and environmental sciences and aims to bridge the gap between the EPSRC signposted area of 'Matter far from equilibrium' and the 'Living with environmental change' priority research area.