Abstract
This work focuses on the detoxification of aqueous waste solutions polluted with 24 emerging pollutants (13 pharmaceuticals and 11 pesticides) using a coupled biological-photocatalytic facility under natural sunlight for use in crop irrigation. The polluted wastewater (urban, agricultural, and industrial) processed by conventional wastewater treatment plants is in some cases insufficient to reach the degree of purity required. This concern is of particular interest, especially in areas where a low rainfall pattern provides insufficient water resources to meet the demands caused by agriculture, which requires increased reuse of wastewater effluents. For this purpose, polluted water was first subjected to biological treatment followed by a photocatalytic process using the tandem TiO2/Na2S2O8. Residues of pharmaceuticals and pesticides were isolated by solid phase extraction (SPE) and analysed by HPLC-QqQ-MS2. A notorious removal of pharmaceuticals was observed after biological treatment (average removal = 78%), except for diclofenac (31%) and carbamazepine (1%). In a contrary way, biodegradation of pesticides was inconspicuous (average removal = 48%) due to their recalcitrant properties. However, all compounds were rapidly degraded during the photocatalytic treatment because the fluence (H) required to obtain 90% degradation (H90) was<470 kJ m−2 for the most persistent pollutant (terbuthylazine). Single first order kinetic model satisfactorily explained the photooxidation of all micropollutants. Therefore, solar heterogeneous photocatalysis is presented as a promising technology to be incorporated as a tertiary process in wastewater treatment plants to remove biorecalcitrant pollutants. This implementation could be interesting especially in arid and semi-arid areas characterised by water scarcity but receiving many hours of sunshine per year, where a high percentage of reclaimed water is used for crop irrigation.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
