Electrochemical oxidation of fipronil pesticide is effective under environmental relevant concentrations

Pesticide overuse has posed a threat to agricultural community as well as for the environment. In order to treat this pollution at its source, decentralized and selective technologies such as electrochemical processes appear especially relevant to avoid the possible generation of toxic degradation products. Electrochemical oxidation (ECO) is a promising electrochemically-driven process, but most studies evaluate performance under pollutant concentrations that are orders of magnitude higher than environmental relevant conditions. This work explores ECO treatment of fipronil using boron-doped diamond (BDD) as anode and titanium plate as cathode at small concentrations found in agricultural run-off. The effect of applied current density and initial contaminant concentrations were also studied. For a current density of 20 mA cm⁻² the decrease of COD and fipronil were about 97% and 100% after 360 min of electrolysis, respectively. Engineering figures of merit were evaluated to assess competitiveness of ECO decentralized propositions. Results suggest effective and feasible treatment of fipronil by ECO.