Physicochemical Treatment of Hazardous Wastes (Electronic book text)

A host of questions confront environmental professionals dealing with treatment of hazardous wastes. For example, what is the nature of the pollutants? What is the contaminated media? What is the concentration of each pollutant? While all these issues are important, it is essential to assess the treatability of each pollutant before a process can be properly selected and designed. To meet this need, Physicochemical Treatment of Hazardous Wastes systematically examines the treatability of hazardous wastes by different physicochemical treatment processes according to the Quantitative Structure and Activity Relationship (QSAR) between kinetic rate constants and molecular descriptors. The author explains the degradation kinetics and mechanisms of organic pollutants in terms of elementary reactions. He discusses QSAR models and uses them to demonstrate the effect of molecular structure on their degradation kinetics, and to rank the treatability of each organic compound.; More than 200 QSAR models show that the Energy of the Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (EHOMO) and the Energy of the Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (ELUMO) have the excellent predictive capacity for degradation rate constants. The author delineates how to use these models to select treatment processes according to the molecular structure of organic pollutants. He covers how to use the models to predict the treatability of organic pollutants having similar molecular structures within a class by each treatment process in both homogeneous and heterogeneous media. Engineers will find the QSAR models extremely useful in selecting treatment processes. Researchers and scientists will find state-of-the-art research trends in advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Graduate students will learn how fundamental sciences can guide the search for innovative technologies. These features and more make Physicochemical Treatment of Hazardous Wastes the perfect guide for assessing the treatability of pollutants prior to designing a treatment process and an authoritative reference on AOPs.