Study and optimization of the UV/H2O2 process for pesticide-contaminated wastewater coming from a pesticide formulation plant

LESCANO, MAIA RAQUEL; FUSSONI, NERINA; VIDAL, EDUARDO GABRIEL; ZALAZAR, CRISTINA SUSANA

Cuzco

Congreso; 5th Iberoamerican Conference on Advanced Oxidation Technologies; 2022

A few works deal withreal wastewaters treatment by UV/H2O2 process, especiallythose coming from different production plants. In addition, it is important tooptimize the process to find the best conditions to carry it out and it isimperative the application of bioassays at the end of treatment to ensureeffluent safety. In the present work, UV/H2O2 process wasapplied to evaluate the degradation of a wastewater coming from a pesticideformulation plant. In addition, the process was optimized and validatedemploying the RSM methodology. Theobtained optimal conditions were: pH = 6.05 and R=4.66 (ratio between initial H2O2and initial TOC concentrations) rendering a predicted TOC conversion of 74.70%.The experimental run under these conditions led to a TOC conversion of 78% (8hours) and pesticides were completely removed. Also, the phytotoxicity assayshowed that, at the end of the treatment, the sample was not phytotoxic. It canbe concluded that the process is efficient to treat this kind of wastewaters.