Electrochemical Oxidation Processes for the Treatment of Organic Pollutants in Water: Performance Evaluation Using Different Figures of Merit

Electrochemical oxidation processes (EOPs) have gained attention as promising technologies for the removal of refractory organic pollutants in water and wastewater. Although many reviews have been reported on EOPs, to date, no review has been mainly focused on the energy efficiencies of EOPs. Accordingly, herein, EOPs for the treatment of organic pollutants in water and wastewater are reviewed, and the performances of different EOPs in terms of energy efficiencies are evaluated using various figures of merit. The basic principles of EOPs are briefly introduced, and indicators for the performance evaluation of EOPs are analyzed based on the fundamentals and statistical databases of EOPs obtained from the literature. Electrical energy per order (EE/O) and electrical energy per mass (EE/M) have been widely used to measure the energy efficiencies of EOPs. However, statistical analysis indica…