ADVANCED OXIDATION TECHNOLOGIES: STATE-OF-THE-ART IN IBERO-AMERICAN COUNTRIES

This special issue of Environmental Science and Pollution Research contains a selection of 33 papers presented at the 3rd Iberoamerican Congress on Advanced Oxidation Technologies (III CIPOA) and 2nd Colombian Conference on Advanced Oxidation Processes (II CCPAOX), chaired by Prof. Ricardo A. Torres-Palma, which were held in Guatapé city, Colombia, from 14 to 17 November 2017.

The goal of these conferences was to gather together scientists, scholars, and professionals, from Iberoamerican countries, to present their research findings and discuss future tendencies concerning the use of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) for the removal of persistent substances from soil, water, wastewater, and air. In III CIPOA/II CCPAOX meetings, 250 abstracts were selected as plenary, oral, short-oral, or poster presentations and the number of participants was 190. The majority came from Brazil and Colombia, and the remaining from Ecuador, Chile, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Switzerland, USA, Serbia, UK, Canada, and Italy.

The review panel, composed by the international scientific committee of III CIPOA, selected 53 oral presentations and 60 short-oral communications primarily from early-career researchers. The poster session (130 posters) represented an interesting scientific forum, suitable for less formal discussions while enjoying a Colombian coffee. Also, 7 plenary speakers shared their innovative research work in different topics of AOPs/EAOPs.

From the 250 abstracts received, 72 works were selected and submitted as full research papers to the special issue of Environmental Science and Pollution Research Journal, and after rigorous peer-review, 33 of which were accepted for publication. The topics covered included (i) new photocatalytic materials; (ii) environmental remediation of water, wastewater, air, and soil, using different AOPs, EAOPs, and Ozonation; and (iii) integration of AOPs/EAOPs/Ozonation with other technologies. The guest editors would like to thank all the authors for the innovative scientific contributions to this special issue, the reviewers whose comments and suggestions were extremely important to achieve high-quality papers, as well as the institutions and companies that sponsored the III CIPOA/II CCPAOX meetings. We also thank ESPR Editor-in-Chief Philippe Garrigues and the editorial assistants Fanny Creusot and Joanne Cabato for their assistance/help/support in the preparation of this special issue.