Efficiency of ferrate/peroxymonosulfate advanced oxidation process in removing chlorpyrifos pesticide from aqueous solution after pretreatment with ferric chloride coagulant

Chlorpyrifos (CPF), an organophosphate pesticide, has been widely used in the agricultural industry and may cause environmental damage. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential application of Fe(VI) and Fe(VI)/PMS processes for oxidation of CPF in water after pretreatment with ferric chloride coagulant.

This study was performed in two phases including coagulation and flocculation process and advanced oxidation process (AOP). In the first phase, the coagulation process was performed for turbidity removal by ferric chloride (FeCl3). In this phase, using a central composite design (CCD) with R software, the combined effect of four variables including initial turbidity, initial pH, coagulant dose and contact time was investigated. The supernatant from this process was transferred to the next phase for further analysis. In the AOP phase, the effect of Fe(VI) and Fe(VI)/PMS oxidants were investigated separately.

In the first phase (coagulation and flocculation), FeCl3 showed the highest efficiency (95.79%) at alkaline pH (pH=8). In the next phase (AOP), the results showed that the degradation efficiency of Fe(VI)/PMS process was higher compared to sole Fe(VI) process at all pHs. Also, by examining the reaction kinetics, it was found that after the coagulation process by FeCl3, the removal rate in the Fe(VI)/PMS process is 1.5 times higher than the Fe(VI) process.

Due to the high removal efficiency and higher degradation rate of Fe(VI)/PMS process, this technique can be used as a relatively effective method in removing chlorpyrifos from aqueous solution.