Studies on Photocatalytic Degradation of Monocrotophos in an Annular Slurry Reactor Using Factorial Design of Experiments

Pesticide contamination of natural waters is posing serious threats to water supplies in many parts of the world. Heterogenous photocatalytic Oxidation with TiO2 photocatalyst is emerging as an attractive technique for pesticide removal. Studies on Monocrotophos (MCP) a widely used pesticide in India, in an annular slurry photoreactor, revealed that the degradation rate is significantly affected by the initial pesticide concentration, pH of the solution and the catalyst concentration. Using a 2 central composite factorial design of experiments a quadratic polynomial model was fitted to predict the removal efficiency. The statistical analysis revealed that the coefficients for the main effects are significant. The MCP removals were in the range of 11 to 78 percent depending on the levels of the parameters studied.