Degradation of Residual Herbicide Atrazine in Agri-Food and Washing Water

Abstract

Atrazine, an herbicide used to control grassy and broadleaf weed, has become an essential part of agricultural crop protection tools. It is widely sprayed on corn, sorghum and sugar cane, with the attendant problems of its residues in agri-food and washing water. If ingested into humans, this residual atrazine can cause reproductive harm, developmental toxicity and carcinogenicity. It is therefore important to find clean and economical degradation processes for atrazine. In recent years, many physical, chemical and biological methods have been proposed to remove atrazine from the aquatic environment. This review introduces the research works of atrazine degradation in aqueous solutions by method classification. These methods are then compared by their advantages, disadvantages, and different degradation pathways of atrazine. Moreover, the existing toxicological experimental data for atrazine and its metabolites are summarized. Finally, the review concludes with directions for future research and major challenges to be addressed.

Photoreduction of atrazine from aqueous solution using sulfite/iodide/UV process, degradation, kinetics and by-products pathway

“…This means that the primary substance has been completely degraded into products with lower m/z. According to the products identified in (Table 3 ) and the reports of other researchers 11 , 31 , 37 , 54 – 58 , the proposed mechanism in the study for the degradation of atrazine is reported in (Fig. 14 ).…”

Degradation of herbicide atrazine in water by high voltage electrical discharge in comparison with Fenton oxidation and ultrasound treatments

“…The toxicity ranking of atrazine and its metabolites is ATZ > DEA > DIA > AM > DDA > HA. 3 For high frequency ultrasound treatment, after 2 h, the atrazine degradation rate was unfavorable at only 47%, and adding ferrous ions doubled the degradation rate to 87%, but the disadvantages still exist with the presence of toxic main metabolites and a high energy consumption. For Fenton oxidation, although it reached the highest atrazine degradation rate of 95%, it produced toxic main metabolite AM.…”

“…12 The degradation of residual atrazine is thus becoming an urgent issue for environmental protection, especially for water security which is listed as a priority by the "European Green Deal" proposed by the European Commission. The degradation of chemically stable atrazine is challenging, and common water treatment technologies are limited by trace organic concentrations 13 and strict fouling control, 14 so there have been increasing efforts to develop efficient advanced oxidation processes, 3 such as Fenton/Fenton-like oxidation, [15][16][17] ultrasound [18][19][20] and so on. Among them, high voltage electrical discharge (HVED) has attracted more attention because of its advantages, high degradation efficiency and environmental friendliness.…”

“…2 Among these pesticides, atrazine is the most commonly used chlorotriazine herbicide to control weeds. 3 Atrazine's low biodegradability and high soil mobility make it persistent in non-agricultural soils, 4 as well as ground and surface water. 5 Atrazine was reported to be an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) posing a threat to the reproductive system of mammals, 6 amphibians, 7 and fishes.…”

An Overview of Spirits Made from Sugarcane Juice

“…However, those practices depend on the regulations of the country. Over the last decade, in the EU, the list of approved herbicides, such as Atrazine, Asulam-based herbicides and glyphosate-based products, has decreased, triggering some difficulties in weed control [27][28][29]. The current general trend is to reduce the use of herbicides by adopting new weed control strategies, including innovative cultural and biological technology [25,30].…”