Removal of Nitramine Explosives in Aqueous Solution by UV-Mediated Advanced Oxidation Process in Near-Neutral Conditions

Explosive compounds are hazardous to the environment, posing a serious risk to human and animal health and the ecosystem. The primary goal of research was to compare the efficiency of UV/H2O2, photo-Fenton, electro (EO)/ UV/H2O2 processes at near-neutral pH (pH=6) on the degradation of nitramine explosives (NAs), such as hexogen (RDX), octogen (HMX), and tetryl (TET), in an aqueous solution. The effect of operational conditions, likely pH of the solution, initial H2O2 concentration, initial Fe2+ concentration, and solution temperature, was observed. The removal kinetics fit with first-order kinetics and were in the order: photo-Fenton >EO/UV/ H2O2 > UV/ H2O2. The results showed higher rate constant values for TET, RDX and HMX removal by UV/ H2O2 (k = 0.07778, 0.03791 and 0.03786 min-1), EO/UV/ H2O2 (k = 0.16599, 0.1475 and 0.08674 min-1) and photo-Fenton (k = 0.18018, 0.1501 and 0.09336 min-1) processes. Furthermore, TET, RDX and HMX were mineralized at 59.7%, 45.1%, and 25.1 %, respectively, under optimum conditions after 60 min of the photo-Fenton process. From the economic perspective, photo-Fenton only requires 2.132–4.113 kWh m-3 to completely reduce NAs. Finally, acute toxicity towards Vibrio fischeri was defeated after usage of near-neutral photo-Fenton. Thus, photo-Fenton at circum-neutral is promising for low-cost, eco-friendly and efficient processes for treating nitramine explosives in aqueous solutions.