Radiation induced pollutant decomposition in water

Two sets of experiments are described, one dealing with the radiation induced decomposition of some volatile chlorinated solvents in deionized water using electron beam irradiation with and without addition of ozone, the other dealing with γ-irradiation of aqueous peroxodisulfate solutions for OH free radical generation. It was found that the radiation induced decomposition of 10 mg/L 1,1,1-trichloroethane in deionized water is not improved by addition of ozone. Accordingly the resulting dose requirement for decomposition is too high for a technical application. No difference was recorded for the radiation induced decomposition of 10 mg/L trichloroethylene (TCE) as well as 10 mg/L perchloroethylene (PCE) in deionized water with and without addition of ozone. These results deviate from previous results obtained in groundwater. Ozone addition reduced the dose requirements in a way that could be of interest for technical application. Based on the assumption of a 25 kW mobile electron beam accelerator a technical design is discussed that would result in a capacity for the destruction of 10 t PCE/a. The results of some experiments performed with the combination peroxodisulfate/γ-irradiation to decompose benzene as well as 1,4-dioxane dissolved in tap water did not really recommend this combination for a technical use.