PHOTOCATALYTIC OXIDATION OF PESTICIDE RINSATE

Abstract

Pesticide rinsate has been considered as one of the major threats for the environment. In this study, photocatalysts such as TiO₂ and O₃ were used to promote the efficiency of direct UV photolysis to prevent such wastewater pollution. Carbofuran (a carbamate pesticide) and mevinphos (an organophosphate pesticide) with a concentration of 100 mg/L were selected as the test pesticide rinsates. Parent pesticide compound, COD, and microtoxicity analysis were employed to investigate the effect of photocatalyst on the degradation efficiency of pesticide in rinsate. It was found that the photocatalytic oxidation process (UV/O₃, UV/TiO₂) showed much higher COD removal and microtoxicity reduction efficiency for pesticide rinsate than did direct UV photolysis under the imposed conditions, suggesting that photocatalytic oxidation processes such as UV/O₃ and UV/TiO₂ could be a better alternative to treat pesticide rinsate. In addition, it was noted that increasing the initial pH of mevinphos rinsate to a basic level was required to reach higher COD removal efficiency and positive microtoxicity reduction efficiency while it was not necessary for the treatment of carbofuran rinsate.

Keywords:

• Photocatalytic oxidation
• Microtoxicity
• Pesticide rinsate

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to ERL/ITRI, Taiwan for financial support.