Enhancing Emerging Pollutant Removal in Industrial Wastewater: Validation of a Photocatalysis Technology in Agri-Food Industry Effluents

Emerging pollutants in wastewater pose significant risks to human health and wildlife, particularly due to their persistence in treated effluents from WWTPs. Very recent research has focused on developing new techniques based on advanced oxidation processes using inorganic and organic photocatalysts for treating polluted effluents under visible light. This study investigates a pesticide-removal system utilizing heterogeneous photoactive polymeric materials P2, P3, and P4. These materials, engineered as hydrophilic polymeric microparticles and functionalized with Rose Bengal, have demonstrated efficient singlet oxygen generation and first-order kinetics in the degradation of AHMPD, a pyrimidine fungicide. Given that most studies in the literature have concentrated on urban WWTPs, with less emphasis on industrial wastewater treatment, this research focused on real water samples from the effluent of an industrial WWTP in the agri-food sector, which processes large volumes of citrus and where high concentrations of AHMPD and other pesticides were detected at certain times of the year. The degradation potential of photoactive materials P3 and P4 was evaluated, achieving removal rates of AHMPD up to 85% under conditions of pH = 11 with 48 h of exposure to visible light.