Processos oxidativos avançados assistidos por microondas aplicados na remoção de pesticidas em meio aquoso

Abstract

The use of pesticides in crop protection has contributed to a massive increase in global food production. However, pesticides have generated a growing concern about your environmental risks. Advanced oxidation processes (AOP) have proved a particularly useful alternative to degrade organic compounds in aqueous medium, converting them into low toxic substances or nontoxic substances. In this work, was evaluated the removal efficiency of the chlorpyrifos pesticide in continuous and batch AOP systems involving microwave radiation, ultraviolet radiation, hydrogen peroxide and titanium dioxide. The MO/UV/H2O2/TiO2 batch system was efficient in the chlorpyrifos removal (100%) using 10% H2O2 solution for most of the microwave power conditions and treatment time. Fractional factorial design was applied to the pesticides treatment in AOP batch system to indicate the optimum values of the parameters: pH, pesticide concentration, oxidizing agent concentration, treatment time, and microwave power. The study of AOP continuous system showed that in 1-hour treatment of 500 mg.L-1 of chlorpyrifos, in alkaline medium, performed a pesticide removal of 87% at 10 ml.min-1 flow rate. Chromatographic analysis of samples treated in AOP continuous system suggests a partial mineralization of the pesticide.