Advanced removal of pesticides, herbicides, and pharmaceutical residues from surface water

This work is interested in studying the removal of 27 harmful pollutants from drinking water in the Rosetta branch of the River Nile by advanced treatment processes (i.e. photo-catalysis under natural conditions and normal pH of surface water). The concentration levels of the selected pesticides (11 compounds) in raw water by the spiking method ranged from 1.57-0.40 µg/L, while the concentration of pharmaceuticals (10 compounds) ranged from 41.56-5.95 µg/L and the herbicides (6 compounds) in the range of 1.89-1.37 µg/L. For this purpose, TiO₂-Hombikat/alumina (T/A) was prepared by a two-step method; sonication followed by the hydrothermal method. Cu/TiO₂-Hombikat/alumina was prepared hydrothermally (H-Cu/T/Al) and by the wet impregnation method (Ma-Cu/T/Al). The prepared materials were characterized by XRD and SEM. The use of advanced treatment could successfully remove selected pollutants. In the case of pharmaceutical residues, the prepared catalysts showed a powerful efficiency in the complete removal of sulfamethazine, while only (T/A) and (H-Cu/T/Al) showed such an efficiency in the complete removal of diclofenac sodium. On the other hand, lower efficiencies were observed with caffeine (17.99% (T/A) and 24.05% (H-Cu/T/Al)). In the case of pesticides, a high removal of pendimethalin (93.77%) using (H-Cu/T/Al) and 86.03% by using (Mb-Cu/T/Al), whereas lower efficiencies were observed for T/A toward the degradation of aldicarb (15.6%) (l) and H-Cu/T/Al (26.07%). In the case of herbicides, the catalysts showed no more than 57% efficiency in the removal of these pollutants.