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Degradation alternatives for a commercial fungicide in water: biological, photo-Fenton, and coupled biological photo-Fenton processes

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Abstract

Imazalil (IMZ) is a widely used fungicide for the post-harvest treatment of citrus, classified as “likely to be carcinogenic in humans” for EPA, that can be only partially removed by conventional biological treatment. Consequently, specific or combined processes should be applied to prevent its release to the environment. Biological treatment with adapted microorganism consortium, photo-Fenton, and coupled biological photo-Fenton processes were tested as alternatives for the purification of water containing high concentration of the fungicide and the coadjutants present in the commercial formulation. IMZ-resistant consortium with the capacity to degrade IMZ in the presence of a C-rich co-substrate was isolated from sludge coming from a fruit packaging company wastewater treatment plant. This consortium was adapted to resist and degrade the organics present in photo-Fenton-oxidized IMZ water solution. Bacteria colonies from the consortia were isolated and identified. The effect of H2O2 initial concentration and dosage on IMZ degradation rate, average oxidation state (AOS), organic acid concentration, oxidation, and mineralization percentage after photo-Fenton process was determined. The application of biological treatment to the oxidized solutions notably decreased the total organic carbon (TOC) in solution. The effect of the oxidation degree, limited by H2O2 concentration and dosage, on the percentage of mineralization obtained after the biological treatment was determined and explained in terms of changes in AOS. The concentration of H2O2 necessary to eliminate IMZ by photo-Fenton and to reduce TOC and chemical oxygen demand (COD) by biological treatment, in order to allow the release of the effluents to rivers with different flows, was estimated.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by project FSNano-08 (ANPCyT, Argentina) and PICT 2014-2386. GC, DC, and RC are members of CONICET. ELL, FA, and MSM are Doctoral fellows of CONICET.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 3iA-UNSAM, Instituto de Investigación e Ingeniería Ambiental, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Campus Miguelete, Av. 25 de mayo y Francia, B1650HMP General San Martín, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Elsa López-Loveira, Federico Ariganello, María Sara Medina, Roberto Candal & Gustavo Curutchet

  2. IMPAM-UBA, Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Mecanismos y Resistencias a Antibióticos, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Paraguay 2155, C1121ABG, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Daniela Centrón

Authors
  1. Elsa López-Loveira
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  2. Federico Ariganello
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  3. María Sara Medina
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  4. Daniela Centrón
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  5. Roberto Candal
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  6. Gustavo Curutchet
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roberto Candal.

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Responsible Editor: Vítor Pais Vilar

All figures were made using Prisma 5 (GraphPad Software, Inc.) and edited using Adobe Illustrator (Adobe Systems, Inc.).

Electronic supplementary material

ESM. 1

EMS Evolution of biomass and pH in the solution during the biological treatment with 4.5 g/L glucose and 500 mg/L IMZ. Biomass (●) and pH (--●--) at controlled pH. Biomass (■) and pH (--■--) at pHi 7.0 (GIF 10 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 1393 kb)

ESM. 2

EMS Isotherm of IMZ adsorption by biomass. IMZ concentration range 0–600 mg/L; pH = 7.0; biomass dose = 1.5 g/L; period = 8 h (GIF 6 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 1378 kb)

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López-Loveira, E., Ariganello, F., Medina, M.S. et al. Degradation alternatives for a commercial fungicide in water: biological, photo-Fenton, and coupled biological photo-Fenton processes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 25634–25644 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7602-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7602-4

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