Abstract
Herbicide use in agriculture is important to increase crop yield; however, it has caused groundwater contamination in some countries. Our objective was to develop a slow-release reductant to treat herbicide-contaminated groundwater. The tested herbicides were alachlor (ALC), metolachlor (MTC), 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), and atrazine (ATZ). Among these, ALC degraded the best, reaching a degradation plateau with a small level of Fe0 (2.5%, w/v). Under aerobic conditions, both reductive reactions for electron transfer and oxidative reactions for generating active radicals are complex reactions responsible for herbicide degradation. By using slow-release Fe0 (SRZ), we found that the degradation was prolonged and the plateau disappeared, indicating the greatest slow-release benefit. Fe0 and SRZ removed ALC at 15% and 28% faster rates, respectively, under anaerobic conditions. At pH 3, the oxide layers on Fe0 were removed facilitating better electron transfer for ALC degradation. Several reductants were tested in this study, but we mainly used Fe0 as the main slow-release ingredient that was prepared by mixing Fe0 with heated paraffin in a 4.7:1 ratio (w/w) and molding it into a 0.6 cm ∅ × 2.5 cm length cylindrical shape. We stacked slow-release Fe0 in a 2D ALC-saturated sand tank (70 × 30 × 3 cm), spatially collected samples along with the tank sampling array, and quantified the changes in ALC concentration. The results showed that the ALC concentration decreased 20–35% faster compared to DI flushing. These results supported the use of SRZ as an alternative approach for treating herbicide-contaminated groundwater.
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Funding
This research was financially supported by the Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute (KURDI) in the fiscal year 2018. Saksit Imman was supported by the unit of excellence, University of Phayao (No. FF65-UoE008 and FF65-RIM001).
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Chokejaroenrat, C., Angkaew, A., Techauay, K. et al. Developing Slow-Release Reductant for Treating Herbicide-Contaminated Groundwater. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 396 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06397-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06397-3