Plasma treatment of sulfamethoxazole contaminated water: Intermediate products, toxicity assessment and potential agricultural reuse.

The increasing global water demand has prompted the reuse of treated wastewater. However, the persistence of organic micropollutants in inefficiently treated effluents can have detrimental effects depending on the scope of the reclaimed water usage. One example is the presence of sulfamethoxazole, a widely used antibiotic whose interference with the folate synthesis pathway negatively affects plants and microorganisms.

Positive Effect Induced by Plasma Treatment of Seeds on the Agricultural Performance of Sunflower.

The need for efficient technologies to enhance productivity in agriculture strongly motivates research on plasma treatment of seeds and plants. In this study, the influence of plasma treatment on sunflower ( L.) seeds was evidenced throughout the entire life span of the plants.

A review on non-thermal plasma treatment of water contaminated with antibiotics.

Large amounts of antibiotics are produced and consumed worldwide, while wastewater treatment is still rather inefficient, leading to considerable water contamination. Concentrations of antibiotics in the environment are often sufficiently high to exert a selective pressure on bacteria of clinical importance that increases the prevalence of resistance. Since the drastic reduction in the use of antibiotics is not envisaged, efforts to reduce their input into the environment by improving treatment of contaminated wastewater is essential to limit uncontrollable spread of antibiotic resistance.

Characterization of the chemical activity of a pulsed corona discharge above water.

A pulsed corona discharge above liquid combined with ozonation has been investigated for the degradation of organic pollutants in water, as well as regarding the generation of several oxidizing species: ozone in gas phase, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals in the liquid. A considerable improvement in the energy efficiency for organic compounds removal has been observed when reducing the width of the discharge pulses. This finding was correlated with the efficient formation of oxidizing species in case of short pulses.