**11. Recent technologies to treat endosulfan present in water and soil**

Nowadays, there is a concern for the development of alternatives for the elimination of endosulfan in both water and soil. In this context, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are considered a highly competitive technology for the removal of those organic pollutants not treatable by conventional techniques. All AOPs produce •OH radicals, they are very reactive, attack most organic molecules, and are not highly selective. The generation of •OH radicals is through different reagent systems, which include photochemical degradation processes (UV/O<sup>3</sup> , UV/H<sup>2</sup> O2 ), photocatalysis (TiO<sup>2</sup> /UV, photo-Fenton reactives), chemical oxidation processes (O3 , O3 /H<sup>2</sup> O2 , H<sup>2</sup> O2 /Fe2+), and electrooxidation (BDD electrodes) [27].

Others treatments for pesticides are biodegradation and bioremediation; both of these are based on the conversion or metabolism of pesticides by microorganisms. The difference between these two is that the biodegradation is a natural process, whereas bioremediation is a technology. One disadvantage of these processes is that they require a long time to degrade the pesticide [28].

One of the technologies most resorted to eliminate pesticides present in water is adsorption with activated carbon, as it can be applied at a large scale. Good characteristics of activated carbon include large surface area and well distributed porosity [29].

**Table 2** shows some technologies that have been developed to degrade endosulfan present in water and soil.


**12. Conclusions**

Nano-

phytotechnological using zero-valent iron nanoparticles

**Author details**

**References**

Claudia Rosales Landeros<sup>1</sup>

Toluca, Estado de México, México

One of the most important economic activities worldwide is agriculture. Form the early 50s and owing to population growth, intensive agriculture practice has been carried out. In this kind of massive production, an excess of chemical substances was used, among them, pesticides. Endosulfan has been one of the most used pesticides due to its wide spectrum of activity; nevertheless, it has very negative consequences on the environment. The physicochemical properties of endosulfan favor bioaccumulation and biomagnification, and it is considered a persistent organic compound; thereby, in 2007, it was proposed to be included in the Stockholm agreement, aim that was reached in 2010. Thanks to the information gathered, a large number of countries have banned the use of endosulfan; however, many other countries still use it on their fields. It has been found that endosulfan is transported to zones considerably far from the application fields, as an example, endosulfan has been detected in the Arctic. Although a large number of countries have opted not to make use of this pesticide, research continues in order to find out how to eliminate it from soil, sediments, water, and a

**Treatment Matrix Conditions Efficiency Reference**

Soil Concentration of endosulfan: 1139 μg/Kg of soil Plants: *A. calcarata, O. sanctum, C. citrates* Temperature: 30 ± 3°C and natural light

> Contact time: 28 d nZVIs: 1000 mg/kg

**Table 2.** Technologies for degradation of endosulfan present in water and soil.

proper disposal of the product that that will be no longer used [37–39].

\*Address all correspondence to: cbd0044@gmail.com

, Carlos Eduardo Barrera Díaz<sup>1</sup>

2 Department of Chemistry, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, USA

[1] Yadav C, Devi L, Syed H, Cheng Z, Li J, Zhang G, et al. Current status of persistent organic pesticides residues in air, water, and soil, and their possible effect on

1 Centro Conjunto de Investigación en Química Sustentable UAEM—UNAM,

\* and Bryan Bilyeu<sup>2</sup>

The maximum % removal endosulfan was with *Alpinia calcarata* 94.9%

Dissemination of Endosulfan into the Environment http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81094

[36]

13


**Table 2.** Technologies for degradation of endosulfan present in water and soil.
