A Critical Review on Removal of Gaseous Pollutants Using Sulfate Radical-based Advanced Oxidation Technologies

Excessive emissions of gaseous pollutants such as SO2, NOx, heavy metals (Hg, As, etc.), H2S, VOCs, etc. have triggered a series of environmental pollution incidents. Sulfate radical (SO4•–)-based advanced oxidation technologies (AOTs) are one of the most promising gaseous pollutants removal technologies because they can not only produce active free radicals with strong oxidation ability to simultaneously degrade most of gaseous pollutants, but also their reaction processes are environmentally friendly. However, so far, the special review focusing on gaseous pollutants removal using SO4•–-based AOTs is not reported. This review reports the latest advances in removal of gaseous pollutants (e.g., SO2, NOx, Hg, As, H2S, and VOCs) using SO4•–-based AOTs. The performance, mechanism, active species identification and advantages/disadvantages of these removal technologies using SO4•–-based AOTs are reviewed. The existing challenges and further research suggestions are also commented. Results show that SO4•–-based AOTs possess good development potential in gaseous pollutant control field due to simple reagent transportation and storage, low product post-treatment requirements and strong degradation ability of refractory pollutants. Each SO4•–-based AOT possesses its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of removal performance, cost, reliability, and product post-treatment. Low free radical yield, poor removal capacity, unclear removal mechanism/contribution of active species, unreliable technology and high cost are still the main problems in this field. The combined use of multiactivation technologies is one of the promising strategies to overcome these defects since it may make up for the shortcomings of independent technology. In order to improve free radical yield and pollutant removal capacity, enhancement of mass transfer and optimization design of reactor are critical issues. Comprehensive consideration of catalytic materials, removal chemistry, mass transfer and reactor is the promising route to solve these problems. In order to clarify removal mechanism, it is essential to select suitable free radical sacrificial agents, probes and spin trapping agents, which possess high selectivity for target specie, high solubility in water, and little effect on activity of catalyst itself and mass transfer/diffusion parameters. In order to further reduce investment and operating costs, it is necessary to carry out the related studies on simultaneous removal of more gaseous pollutants.