The Application of the Green Oxidant Ferrate for Wastewater Disinfection and Reuse to be utilized for Wetland Restoration, Irrigation and Groundwater Recharge

Since Ferrate is a green oxidant, which is stronger than ozone, it is an excellent replacement disinfection/tertiary treatment for chlorine. Ferrate was developed in the 1970s as a replacement chemical to chlorine, but its utilization was cost prohibitive. With the advances in the production of Ferrate, it is becoming a viable alternative to the existing oxidative processes because its oxidative by-products are neither biocidal nor carcinogenic and do not negatively impact human health and the environment. At present in the reuse of wastewater, UV has been the disinfection choice for wetland rehabilitation, land treatment to reduce water and fertilizer needs, and freshwater aquifer recharge.With the new synthesis process for Ferrate, its cost is equal to or less than existing chlorination processes. An important point of the new Ferrate technology is that it can be integrated into existing hypochlorite chlorination systems. In fact, the ORP monitoring system used in chlorination can be refined to monitor Ferrate instead of hypochlorite. The specific advantages of Ferrate over chlorine are that it:Produces a pathogen free effluent with respect to E. coli, enterococci, bacterial phages, endospores and protozoan oocysts. Chlorine cannot disinfect all these microbes.Immobilizes the total phosphorous by adsorption to the residual ferric hydroxide causing a slow nutrient release to the wetlands.Oxidizes refractory organics such as EDCs, PPCPs, NDMA and MTBE in wastewater effluents. 4. Does not produce potential problems associated with chlorinated by-products.