Recent development of electrochemical advanced oxidation of herbicides. A review on its application to wastewater treatment and soil remediation

Herbicides have been largely utilized during the last decades to maintain quality and quantity of agricultural crop, ensuring need an increasing world food production. However, these synthetic organics are highly biorecalcitrant stable at mild conditions cannot be effectively destroyed in conventional wastewater treatment facilities. Among advanced oxidation processes used remove herbicides, electrochemical technologies recently developed bench scale as potential powerful treatments. This review presents a critical, exhaustive detailed analysis on application single combined remediate wastewaters soils contaminated with common covering period 2010–2019. Nine kinds treatments, including methods like anodic oxidation, electrogenerated H2O2, homogeneous heterogeneous electro-Fenton, photoelectro-Fenton, solar photoelectro-Fenton photoelectrocatalysis, well ones involving hybrid sequential processes, examined. The fundamentals each technology briefly described, main results obtained for removal most herbicide families from solutions soil-washing effluents carefully exposed discussed. role generated oxidizing agents and/or photolytic reactions photo-assisted is explained justify mechanisms proposed mineralization. comparative ability different Finally, future challenges remarking treating real soils, construction systems electrodes industrial realization techno-economic studies envisaged.