Systematic review of the effects of advanced oxidation processes integration with solar water disinfection for improved drinking water production

Solar disinfection treatment technologies (SODIS) have emerged as simple and effective microbiological water treatment techniques especially for deprived communities in Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) lacking access to safe drinking water systems. While the integration of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP) techniques with SODIS for drinking water treatment has been advocated for such communities often lacking not only clean water but also reliable energy, the status of knowledge on empirical testing of these advancements remain fragmented and yet to be fully understood. In this intervention, we synthesize the literature to understand the progress made so far, the cumulative effect of AOP integration with SODIS and remaining questions for future empirical studies on AOP integrations with SODIS for sustainable clean water supply for all. Using the PRISMA methodology, we included and analyzed data from 16 empirical testing of AOP and SODIS integration between 1995 and 2022 reported in 37 studies retrieved from databases including PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Results show AOP integration with SODIS significantly reduces time for complete disinfection of contaminants in relation to SODIS alone; non-recovery of inactivated organisms as well as the inactivation of SODIS resistance organisms for improved water production. The availability of suitable catalyst (reagents), sunlight availability and intensity as well as simple operational designs are some factors that inform the feasibility and operation of SODIS systems and their integration with AOP. It is recommended that future development agenda and research on water systems should focus on laboratory-scale experiments to pilot projects and improving inactivation efficiency for different AOP and their combined effects on water contaminants.