Decontamination of certain pesticides from water by natural adsorbents.

Abstract

The decontamination of pesticides belongs to different chemical function groups from water was studied by using some natural adsorbent materials. Data indicated the important and great influences of natural adsorbents and pesticide type on the rate of elimination of the tested pesticide residues from water. In general, charcoal and groundnut hull achieved the higher elimination of most of the tested pesticides., whereas the contrary was obtained with peat moss and vermiculite. The averages of the elimination percentage, being 87.42, 77.92, 54.73 & 47.40 % (insecticides acaricides group); 81.42, 67.64, 41.12 &26.69 % (fungicides group) and 69.81, 68.08, 48.93 & 34.69 % (herbicide group) for the above mentioned adsorbents, re.. spectively. A clear relationship between chemical group of pesticides, and elimination percent was noticed. In general, chlorinated hydrocarbons & cyclodiene and pyrethroids compounds showed the highest decontamination rates among the studied pesticides groups, especially with charcoal and groundnut hull adsorbents, showing mean elimination percent of, 90.12 & 91.43 % (charcoal); 83.15 & 91.93 % (groundnut hull), respectively. It is interest to notice that the insecticide _ acaricide groups showed the highest elimination on charcoal and groundnut hull adsorbents compared with fungicide and herbicide groups. From the obtained data, it is suggested to develop a tap attached water treatment unit tube attached with tap of drinking water for pesticides removal from drinking water in residential area.