The present study compares the ultraviolet (UV)-based AOPs for the disinfection and the post-treatment of the biologically-treated hospital wastewater (BHW). It was found that the vacuum UV (VUV) photoreactor was much more efficient than the UVC photoreactor in inactivation of E. coli. A 6.4 and 3.7 log E. coli inactivation (from an initial concentration of 1.09 x 10(10 )CFU/mL) was achieved in the VUV and UVC photoreactors, respectively, operated under similar conditions at the neutral pH of water. In the case of continuous-flow operation, the complete inactivation of E. coli was achieved in the VUV photoreactor in hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3 min. However, the UVC photoreactor could not attain the same performance even at the longer HRT of 10 min. Adding H2O2 to the VUV photoreactor improved the removal of total organic carbon (TOC) from the BHW. The TOC removal in the recirculated VUV photoreactor improved from 10.8%-61.7% in the reaction time of 10 min at the presence of the optimum H2O2 amount of 3 mM whereas the TOC removal in the UVC/H2O2 operated at the similar conditions was only 13.1%. When operated under flow-through condition, 93.6% of TOC could be removed from the BHW in the VUV/H2O2 process at the HRT of 10 min where the complete bacterial inactivation and detergent removal was also achieved. The electrical energy consumption was 52.9, 12.2, and 6.5 kW h/m(3) in the UVC/H2O2, VUV and VUV/H2O2 processes, respectively, when operated at the HRT of 10 min under identical conditions for TOC removal. The VUV/H2O2 process could also degrade most of the residual substances in the BHW thus efficiently detoxified the BHW to the level sufficient for discharging into the water environment. Accordingly, the VUV/H2O2 process is an efficient, energy-effective, and thus emerging method for the disinfection and the post-treatment of the hospital wastewater. (C) 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.