Application of UV based advanced oxidation to treat sulfolane in an aqueous medium

• Sulfolane can be degraded efficiently using AOPs.
• Combination of AOPs (H2O2/UV/O3) can completely degrade sulfolane.
• A synergistic effect was observed when H2O2/UVC were combined with O3 photolysis.
• Sulfolane can also be treated with UVA based photocatalysis.

Several oxidative methods were studied to degrade sulfolane in an aqueous medium. These include UVA and UVC irradiation with suitable photoactive oxidants, including ozone, H2O2, and TiO2 based photocatalysis and their combinations. Since sulfolane lacks absorption bands in the UV range beyond 200 nm, initiation of reactions depends on the spectra and photochemistry of the oxidants. Among all the advanced oxidation processes investigated, combinations of (a) UVC with H2O2 and O3 (b) UVC with H2O2 and (c) UVC with O3 led to the highest rate of sulfolane loss in synthetic water samples. Experiments on sulfolane contaminated groundwater samples also indicated that these three combinations can efficiently degrade sulfolane. Furthermore, a synergistic effect was observed in the combination of H2O2 and O3 photolysis.