Citation:
Lindsey Goodwin, Irene Carra, Pablo Campo and Ana Soares. Treatment options for reclaiming wastewater produced by the pesticide industry. International Journal of Water and Wastewater Treatment, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2018
Abstract:
The pesticide production industry generates a high strength wastewater containing a range of toxic pollutants (2,4-dichlorphenoxy acetic
acid: 2,4-D; 4-(2,4-dichlorphenox) propionic acid: 2,4-DP; 4-(2,4-dichlorophenox) butyric acid: 2,4-DB; 2,4-dichlorophenol: 2,4-DCP;
2,4,6-trichlorophenol: 2,4,6-TCP; 4-chlororthocresol: PCOC; 4-chloro-2-methyl phenoxyacetic acid: MCPA, 4-(4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy) butyric
acid: MCPB and 2-(4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy) propionic acid: MCPP). These pesticides can enter the natural environment and water sources if
not removed in a wastewater treatment plant. Treated effluents are regulated by legislation such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Most
studies found in literature focused on synthetic solutions, synthetic wastewater, at lab-scale or pilot-scale. Although these studies can provide
information on the removal mechanisms and provide a comparison between process efficiency, they have limited practical applicability. The
process that has been more widely used to treat high strength wastewaters rich in recalcitrant compounds at full-scale, is the combination of
biological/granular activated carbon and granular activated carbon/biological processes. The pesticide production wastewater contains a variety
of compounds, that can be removed by 80-90% using biological processes (such as membrane bioreactors) and granular activated carbon has
been shown to selectively remove the pesticides, potentially creating a high quality effluent. Nevertheless, in order to assert processes design,
efficiencies or costs, it is crucial to evaluate these processes experimentally.