Part of the book: Biodegradation
Freshwater pollution compromises drinking water in a worldwide context. Water pollution is one of the major environmental challenges facing humanity. Therefore, the application of methods to control the pollution in water is a growing research field. Among the methods, ozone has been widely applied due to its high oxidation potential. However, one disadvantage is the presence of refractory organic compounds that are partially oxidized leaving mineralization incomplete. Several approaches have been considered to improve the oxidizing power, reducing the reaction time, and increasing the mineralization degree of ozone. So far, the combination of a solid catalyst with ozone (catalytic ozonation) has shown to enhance the degradation of refractory organic compounds in water. This chapter presents the combination of different metallic oxides (Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2, and NiO) with ozone to determine the effect of ozone decomposition and the subsequent elimination of one chlorinated compound (2,4-D). The chemical structure of the initial compound (2,4-D, benzoic and phthalic acid), as well as the initial catalyst dosage (0.1 and 0.5 g L−1) with the mentioned compounds, was also studied. Moreover, the degradation of two aromatic compounds (naphthalene and naproxen) with different proportions of ethanol (representing the organic matter of wastewater) was analyzed to establish their effect on the catalytic ozonation process.
Part of the book: Ozone in Nature and Practice
The applications of ozone are not only restricted to environmental remediation or industrial areas. This gas has been applied in medicine to treat several diseases, where positive effects have been confirmed by many clinical studies. According to the European Medical Society of Ozone and the National Center of Scientific Investigation in Cuba, it has not been possible to validate ozone’s effectiveness by traditional analytical methods. Thus, this investigation proposed evaluating the effect that ozone has on biological substrates (murine models with induced carcinogenic tumors, inflammation, and wounds), studying the variations that ozone (dissolved in physiological solution or ozonated vegetable oils) provokes over the total unsaturation of lipids (TUL), and by using the so-called method double bond index (DB-index), make a correlation with the dynamic reactions obtained by several analytical methods according to each experimental stage considered in this study.
Part of the book: Ozone in Nature and Practice