Advanced oxidation processes applied to effluent streams from an agrochemical industry

Firstly, I wish to thank the Organizing Committee of this Congress for this invitation so that, I should have the opportunity to report our project at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil, that deals with the application of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP’s) to effluent streams within an agrochemical industry. During next 20 minutes, I’ll define (Fig. 1) and explain advanced oxidation processes; then I’ll demonstrate their importance and, last but not least, I’d relate a case study of the application of AOP’s to effluent streams of an agrochemical industry in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This topic is receiving full attention from our research group at the UFSM because of its environmental importance. In this scheme (Fig. 2) the main AOP’s are put together: Ozonation + UV-Irradiation + Peroxydation + Catalysis, and their combinations: Photoozonization, Photocatalysis, Peroxonation, Peroxidation and others. These processes can be applied separatedly, in association with others, and even sequentially; it depends on the kind of effluent that has to be handled.