Synergetic Treatment of Pesticide Contaminated Drinking Water by Combined RO Separation and Electrochemical Degradation

This project studied the electrochemical removal of the pesticide transformation product 2,6-dichlorobenzmide (BAM) in Danish drinking water produced from groundwater at two different anode materials. The influence of the electrolyte composition on the degradation kinetics and pathways of BAM was clarified. Although chloride is present in small concentrations in the groundwater, persistent chlorinated intermediates were not found. The quantity of intermediate products with and without chloride was at the same level or lower compared to inert electrolyte. Integrating electrochemical removal with RO pretreatment significantly reduced the overall energy consumption of the process by 95%; 0.96 kWh/m3 compared to 18.5 kWh/m3 (EO alone).