Electrochemical technologies for the treatment of pesticides

Abstract

Pesticides are used worldwide in large quantities to increase yield in agriculture. On the other hand, they are in general toxic/persistent organic pollutants presenting strong adverse effects to the environment and human health, including acute and chronic toxicity. Consequently, water polluted by pesticides should be treated efficiently before its release into receiving water bodies to protect the natural aquatic environment. Different methods have been used for the treatment of water contaminated by pesticides. Among them, electrochemical technology seems to be very efficient in removing pesticides from water. Therefore this review aims to provide an overview of the recent works on the treatment of pesticide wastewater using electrochemical technology with a special focus on electrochemical advanced oxidation processes that demonstrated high efficiency in the removal of various types of pesticides from contaminated water.