In recent years, due to industrial modernization and agricultural mechanization, several environmental consequences have been observed, which make sustainable development difficult. Soil, as an important component of ecosystem and a key resource for the survival of human and animals, has been under constant contamination from different human activities. Contaminated soils and sites require remediation not only because of the hazardous threat it possess to the environment but also due to the shortage of fresh land for both agriculture and urbanization. Combined or coupled remediation technologies are one of the efficient processes for the treatment of contaminated soils. In these technologies, two or more soil remediation techniques are applied simultaneously or sequentially, in which one technique complements the other, making the treatment very efficient. Coupling anodic oxidation (AO) and soil remediation for the treatment of soil contaminated with organics has been studied via two configurations: (i) soil remediation, ex situ AO, where AO is used as a post-treatment stage for the treatment of effluents from soil remediation process and (ii) soil remediation, in situ AO, where both processes are applied simultaneously. The former is the most widely investigated configuration of the combined processes, while the latter is less common due to the greater diffusion dependency of AO as an electrode process. In this review, the concept of soil washing (SW)/soil flushing (SF) and electrokinetic as soil remediation techniques are briefly explained followed by a discussion of different configurations of combined AO and soil remediation.

Oil leakage occurs at fuel service stations due to improper storage, which pollutes soil and, subsequently, can reach the groundwater. Many compounds of petroleum-derived fuels pose hazards to aquatic systems, and so must be treated to guarantee clean and safe consumption, which is a right proposed by the United Nations in their Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation). In this study, contaminated groundwater with emerging pollutants by petroleum-derived fuel was electrochemically treated in constantly mixed 0.5 L samples using three different anodes: Ni/BDD, Ti/Pt, Ti/RuO₂. Parameters were investigated according to chemical oxygen demand (COD), energy consumption analysis, by applying different electrodes, current densities (j), time, and the use of Na₂SO₄ as an electrolyte. Despite a similar COD decrease, better degradation was achieved after 240 min of electrochemical treatment at Ti/RuO₂ system (almost 70%) by applying 30 mA cm⁻², even without electrolyte. Furthermore, energy consumption was lower with the RuO₂ anode, and greater when 0.5 M of Na₂SO₄ was added; while the order, when compared with the other electrocatalytic materials, was Ti/RuO₂ > Ti/Pt > Ni/BDD. Thereafter, aiming to verify the viability of treatment at a large scale, a pilot flow plant with a capacity of 5 L was used, with a double-sided Ti/RuO₂ as the anode, and two stainless steel cathodes. The optimal conditions for the effective treatment of the polluted water were a j of 30 mA cm⁻², and 0.5 M of Na₂SO₄, resulting in 68% degradation after 300 min, with almost complete removal of BTEX compounds (benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene, and xylene, which are found in emerging pollutants) from the water and other toxic compounds. These significant results proved that the technology used here could be an effective SDG 6 electrochemical-based solution for the treatment of groundwater, seeking to improve the quality of water, removing contaminants, and focusing on Brazilian environmental legislations and, consequently, converting pollutants into effluent that can be returned to the water cycle.

This study investigated the influence of a novel flow–through electro-Fenton (EF) reactor configuration on hydrodynamics and dye removal efficiency using Pt and boron-doped diamond (BDD) anodes coupled with a carbon–PTFE gas diffusion cathode. In this work, an innovative pre–pilot-scale reactor operating in recirculation mode was used to treat 100 mg L⁻¹ Calcon dye solutions in 0.05 mol L⁻¹ Na₂SO₄ at pH 3.0 under electrochemical oxidation (EO) with electrogenerated H₂O₂ (EO-H₂O₂), EF, and Photoelectro-Fenton (PEF) conditions. The effects of applied current density (30–90 mA cm⁻²) and Fe²⁺ concentration (0.25–0.75 mmol L⁻¹) were evaluated through color removal, TOC decay, and identification of oxidation intermediates. The hydrodynamic characterization results revealed flow conditions in a transitional region between laminar and turbulent flow (Re = 3.6 × 10³; Sh = 246). Comparing EF and EO-H₂O₂ processes, when Fe²⁺ was added to the solution, it significantly accelerated discoloration and, consequently, dye degradation in the former, while the absence of Fe²⁺ resulted in slower discoloration kinetics, reaching only 85.8% color removal after 180 min in the latter. The best performance was obtained with 0.50 mmol L⁻¹ Fe²⁺ in EF, achieving >98% discoloration. Among the investigated processes, PEF exhibited the highest mineralization efficiency. TOC removals using BDD as the anode efficiently reached high mineralization levels of 83.88%, 86.99%, and 93.38% for EO-H₂O₂, EF, and PEF, respectively, while Pt as the anode achieved 81.80%, 85.14%, and 91.63%. Overall, the BDD/PEF system showed the best degradation and mineralization performance. The proposed reactor was designed at the pre-pilot scale and incorporates vertical recirculation flow with hydrodynamic optimization, enabling efficient mass transfer and improved oxidant generation. The study provides practical insights into the reactor engineering aspects required for the future scale-up of EF technologies.