Since the early twentieth century, disinfecting water has been an essential process to prevent the introduction of harmful organisms, especially pathogenic organisms. Due to the reaction between anthropogenic contaminants present in water and the chemicals used to disinfect water, compounds known as disinfection by-products (DBPs) are formed during the water disinfection process. Chlorination, the most dominant water disinfection method, produces DBPs that have drawn a lot of attention and health concerns. The most commonly used removal technology for trichloromethane (TCM) is adsorption, and the use of activated carbon, iron oxides, and nanoparticles has been widely investigated. Studies have found that using nano-zero valent iron with nano-catalytic metals (Cu, Ni etc.) to synthesize bimetallic nanoparticles increases the removal of organic pollutants. The current study investigates the adsorption of trichloromethane (TCM) by synthesized Fe/Cu bimetallic nanoparticles. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the effect of independent variables on the removal of TCM. According to the CCD results, TCM concentration and reaction time were determined as the most effective parameters. The lowest TCM concentrations have low removal efficiencies, while the lowest TCM concentration (50 µg/L) can be removed up to 60%. The highest TCM concentration can be 500 µg/L to achieve a removal below the limits with 500 mg/L Fe/Cu concentration and 24 min of reaction time. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied to Fe/Cu nanoparticle synthesis, and results indicated that the highest environmental impact was from the mixture of reactant stage.

The present paper focuses on a hybrid system combining electrochemical oxidation (EO) and activated carbon (AC) adsorption in a concept known as three-dimensional (3D) electrocatalytic technology for the treatment of oxytetracycline from aqueous solution; the conventional one-factor-at-a-time variation approach (AC dosage, OTC concentration, and current density) was used for determining the effects of operating parameters on the 3D electrochemical process and optimized via fuzzy logic modeling. The process’s superior performance was assessed based on comparative studies of the degradation efficiency of the 3D electrochemical process with AC adsorption and conventional 2D electrochemical process. The study showed that the AC particle electrode enhanced the performance of the 3D system by up to 21% in terms of OTC degradation efficiency compared to both adsorption and the conventional two-dimensional (2D) electrochemical system. When 2D and 3D processes were compared in required energy and electricity budgets, 3D electrode process with 0.75 g/L activated carbon requires 27.60 kWh/m³ and it perceived 2 times lower than 2D process; accordingly, the electricity budget is €5.38 and €2.81 for electrooxidation and 3D electrode process, respectively. The obtained results suggest that under the electric field, polarized AC worked as both adsorbent and a catalyst in the 3D electrochemical system, enhancing subsequently the decomposition of electro-generated H₂O₂ to more hydroxyl radicals (·OH) and promote the capacity of OTC mineralization.