Halogens in water treatment: some applications ranging from seawater chlorination to the transformation of micropollutants by advanced oxidation processes (6 July 2023)

This presentation will showcase the main results achieved by our team in recent years in halogen chemistry for water treatment. Halogens used directly as disinfectants (chlorine, chloramines, etc.) generate undesirable by-products and transformation products that are often more toxic than the initial products (e.g. bisphenol A, phenylguanidines). Halogens present in natural waters (e.g. iodide) can also be oxidized by materials such as manganese oxides to generate organo-halogenated compounds. In recent work on the chlorination of seawater in the presence of ammonia, haloamines (bromamines, bromochloramines) have been analyzed by mass spectrometry to develop a general kinetic model and study their reactivity with natural organic matter. Finally, chlorine was used in the UV-chlorine process to transform organic micropollutants.