Degradation of alachlor in aqueous solution by using hydrodynamic cavitation

Abstract The degradation of alachlor aqueous solution by using hydrodynamic cavitation was systematically investigated. It was found that alachlor in aqueous solution can be deomposed with swirling jet-induced cavitation. The degradation can be described by a pseudo-first-order kinetics and the degradation rate was found to be 4.90 × 10 −2  min −1 . The effects of operating parameters such as fluid pressure, solution temperature, initial concentration of alachlor and medium pH on the degradation rates of alachlor were also discussed. The results showed that the degradation rates of alachlor increased with increasing pressure and decreased with increasing initial concentration. An optimum temperature of 40 °C existed for the degradation rate of alachlor and the degradation rate was also found to be slightly depend on medium pH. Many degradation products formed during the process, and some of them were qualitatively identified by GC–MS.