Removal of triclosan from aqueous matrixes: A systematic review with detailed meta-analysis

Triclosan (TCS) is an antibacterial agent frequently detected in water environments. Its accumulation in aquatic ecosystems and its absorption by humans can result in potential toxicity. Therefore, the study of the treatment of waters polluted with TCS is a crucial subject for protecting the environment. This sys-tematic review investigates TCS chemical removal technologies, with special attention to the effect of several reaction parameters, and the reaction by-products. These technologies were classified into adsorption and chemical processes. Moreover, a meta-analysis has been performed to provide a clear pic-ture of the state of the art of the different available technologies. Initially, 22 studies were reviewed in the meta-analysis based on two global technologies, namely adsorption and chemical processes. After that, sub-processes were evaluated, including sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOPs), photodegradation, permanganate oxidation, electrochemical, dechlorination, and adsorption. The random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled mean of TCS removal percentage with 95% con-fidence intervals (95%CI). The average pooled percentage of chemical processes for degradation of TCS was 77.20% (95%CI: 70.79-83.62). Based on the results of the meta-analysis, the dechlorination process, developed by a nano-bio hybrid subset of the reduction process, had the highest TCS removal with an average percentage of 96.13% (95%CI: 93.37-98.89).(c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.