Prospects for the Use of Electrooxidation and Electrocoagulation Techniques for Membrane Filtration of Irrigation Water

Abstract

The problem of water insufficiency within the agriculture sector creates the need to create new strategies to optimize the use of this resource to the maximum. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if the use of membrane technology and the application of electrochemical techniques can be a viable strategy to create a system to achieve the continuous reuse of irrigation water in closed agricultural production systems. From an extensive review carried out, it was determined that the conventional treatment methods used in closed agricultural systems have considerable limitations since they cannot produce high purity water, which is a mandatory requirement for such systems. Because of this, membrane technology was selected as the basis for our proposal in this study, since it is widely used to generate potable water and to treat wastewater. Membrane fouling by natural organic matter (NOM) was identified as the main limitation of this technology. On this basis, the most effective technologies to solve this problem were sought and evaluated. The application of electrochemical techniques like electrooxidation, electrocoagulation, and the use of electroconductive membranes modified by nanomaterials, were found to be the most feasible means. From the analysis of the mechanisms of action of these technologies, we deduce that the application of electrocoagulation techniques adapted to electroconductive membranes which can carry out electrooxidation processes, could achieve a significant decrease in NOM. This would reduce the fouling problem considerably, optimizing irrigation water treatment systems to allow the reuse of water.