**2.3. Intensification of WAO with combined technologies; effect of high energy radiation on wet oxidation at elevated temperature (combination of the two methods)**

As it is indicated in the previous section, one of the new areas in treating liquid wastes of highorganic content generated by the fine chemical mainly the pharmaceutical industry is the combination of AOPs with WAO. This area of work is rather new and there are very few articles dealing with this area of research.

We already know that the organic compounds undergo chain type oxidation in a reactor at high temperature and high pressure, of course sometimes in the presence of a catalyst. The high temperature is needed for initiation of oxidation processes, but at the same time this high temperature and pressure could cause serious corrosion even at alkaline pH, so it could be a good idea to decrease the temperature yet induce the chain initiation of oxidation by radiation. For this reason, WO and irradiation could be combined.

For radiation processing of polluted water, high-energy electron beam, *γ* -rays, or x-rays can be principally used. For producing the electron beam, electron accelerator devices are far the best radiation sources with respect to their output power and practical applicability.
