Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO) Technology an Alternative to the Conventional Wastewater Treatment Plant

Abstract

Clean water is essential for human survival. One issue to be face is the impact of wastewater treatment on water sources. Is essential to bring alternative solution for the wastewater treatment. There are many technologies regarding wastewater treatment, but over the years, the day to day practice have shown that the technologies associated with this are complicated, expensive and are no strangers to facing issues. For example; operational efficiency, cost, sustainability and the possible waste, between others. One new technologies applied to the wastewater treatment is called Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO for its initials). SCWO is the destruction of wastewater is performed beyond the critical temperature (374.2 ℃) and critical pressure (22.1 MPa) of water. During SCWO the wastewater and the added oxidants become homogenous, so that the oxidative ability increases and the pollutants are oxidized quickly. In simple words, oxidation means burning. For that reason, upon this technology waste is burned in presence of oxygen. But the reaction is performed in a high-temperature, high-pressure reactor using supercritical water as a process fluid. SCWO is a powerful technology to treat hazardous wastewaters with many advantages. However, this has two main weaknesses as salt deposition and corrosion. Key Terms - SCWO, Supercritical Water, Water Contamination, WWTP.