Abstract

COLINA-MARQUEZ, José; MACHUCA-MARTINEZ, Fiderman  and  SALAS, Wilson. Enhancement of the potential biodegradability and the mineralization of a pesticides mixture after being treated by a coupled process of TiO2-based solar photocatalysis with constructed wetlands. Ing. compet. [online]. 2013, vol.15, n.2, pp.181-190. ISSN 0123-3033.

Solar heterogeneous photocatalysis is an advanced oxidation technology, which allows a successful treatment of many recalcitrant and emergent pollutants, such as: pesticides, industrial dyes and pharmaceutical compounds. Nonetheless, despite its effectiveness, the costs of applying this process are high when it is necessary to achieve a complete mineralization or to obtain an environment-friendly effluent. Photocatalytic-biological coupled systems have become in a feasible alternative able to treat efficiently these pollutants. In this work, a coupled system consistent of two compound parabolic collectors (CPC) solar photoreactors and a subsurface flow constructed wetland (SFCW) at pilot-scale was tested for degrading a mixture of commercial pesticides used in sugar cane crops. For measuring the process performance, regarding to the pollutant removal, the increase of the BOD5/COD ratio and the total organic carbon (TOC) removal were estimated for each separated system and the coupled system. Three different levels of solar UV accumulated energy and feed flow-rates to the SFCW were considered for the experimental design. The pilot-scale coupled system increased the BOD5/COD ratio from 0.15 to 0.90, and the TOC removal (total mineralization) was around 80%

Keywords : Diuron; 2,4-D; Ametryne; Heliconia psittacorum; biodegradability.

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