Development of photocatalytic adsorbents for removal and degradation of pesticides in water and wastewaters

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Pollution arising from agricultural activities is a serious environmental worldwide problem encompassing several types of pollutants such as pesticides and nutrients. Pesticides are particularly important pollutants as they are toxic, bioaccumulative and generally persistent in the environment. Their presence in drinking water is a potential public health hazard as these chemicals are reputed to be neurotoxic, carcinogen and endocrine disruptors even at trace levels. They represent also a serious threat to several aquatic organisms and identified recently as responsible of the decline of bees. In Canada, pesticides were detected in surface and ground waters throughout all provinces. Therefore, there is a necessity to develop efficient remediation techniques to get rid of the pesticides in water and wastewaters. The objective pursued in the present DG proposal is to develop an integrated treatment for the adsorptive removal and oxidative photocatalytic degradation of pesticides occurring in agricultural aqueous effluents using innovative rationally-designed photocatalytic adsorbent materials with emphasis on both adsorption capacity and catalytic reaction activity and selectivity. The specific objectives are: (1) Catalysts synthesis; (2) Optimization of process conditions to achieve total pesticide degradation; (3) Investigation of the dark adsorption; (4) Kinetic investigation of the photocatalytic reaction and (5) Study of the stability of the catalysts and proof of concept on commercial formulation.The benefits that could accrue from this research include sustainable solution for the acute negative repercussions of agricultural and agri-food activities on the environment. This research program will benefit several industrial and municipal fields in Canada such as water supplies, wastewater treatment plants and agriculture. Moreover, this research program will contribute to the training of highly qualified personnel (2 Ph.D., 1 MsC., 2 USRA and 1 PDF) in the important area of agricultural pollution control and green processes for water and wastewater treatment.