Research at the Tennessee Valley Authority's National Fertilizer and Environmental Research Center has been directed toward the development of passive basin type solar evaporators as a simple means of reducing the volume of fertilizer and pesticide contaminated rinsewater generated at fertilizer and agrichemical dealerships. In conjunction with this work, investigations are also devoted to TiO(sub 2) catalyzed solar photooxidation as a potential procedure for destroying pesticides in dilute aqueous systems. Initial tests in which dilute samples of the herbicides; Bicep (atrazine and metolachlor), Lasso (alachlor), and Sencor (metribuzin); were recirculated continuously over TiO(sub 2) impregnated fiberglass gauze, under solar irradiation, gave promising results. In the case of metribuzin, solar irradiation induced oxidation appeared effective at concentrations as high as 600 ppM. Catalytic efficiency did not appear greatly affected by using tap water rather than distilled water to dilute the pesticides. Two solar reactor designs will be discussed.
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