Advanced oxidation process is getting tremendous importance in the treatment techniques for the removal of nonbiodegradable
organics from wastewater due to its ability to completely mineralize the pollutants. It uses different methods to produce hydroxyl
radicals which are responsible for oxidation of pollutants. In this work, studies on Fenton, ultraviolet radiation (UV) and UVhydrogen
peroxide processes for removing acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide from aqueous solution are carried out.
Acetamiprid is now finding wide use as a substitute for organophosphates. The effects of pH for UV, H2O2 concentration and Fe2+
concentration for Fenton process and pH and H2O2 concentration for UV-H2O2 process are studied for a simulated wastewater
containing acetamiprid. The efficiency of the processes was evaluated by measuring acetamiprid concentration and total organic
carbon concentration. The processes are optimized using central composite design of response surface methodology. A second
order model has been suggested for the processes and the model is validated using statistical tools. The H2O2 and Fe2+
concentrations showed a positive effect on the removal of pesticide by Fenton process and the optimum conditions obtained are
pH-3, H2O2- 190 mg/L and Fe2+ -19 mg/L. For UV-H2O2 process, the optimum pH is found to be 6 at a H2O2 concentration of 110
mg/l. Kinetic studies were conducted for Fenton, UV and UV-H2O2 processes at the optimized conditions, which show the
applicability of first order kinetics.