The aim of this work is to address the problem of soil contamination with pesticides and present a review of the existing techniques for remediation of these types of soils. First, a brief discussion of the soil structure and complexity is presented, and the impact of its contamination by pesticides is examined. Then, the main existing and emerging techniques for soil remediation, particularly for the elimination of pesticides, is discussed, and their relative advantages and disadvantages presented. In order to choose the best remediation technology, one must take into consideration the soil and site characteristics, the technique suitability, the costs and the environmental footprint. The comparison of existing technologies will be a helpful tool for a preliminary selection of the most promising techniques to use for a particular soil decontamination problem.

Very few economical and process engineering studies have been made concerning the scale-up and implementation of nanomagnetic particle manufacturing into a full-scale plant, and determination of its viability. In this work we describe such a study for two types of industrial plants, one for manufacturing magnetic particles for applications in the environmental area, and the other for manufacturing nanomagnetic particles for applications in the biotechnology area; the two different applications are compared. The following methodology was followed: establish the manufacturing process for each application; determine the market demand of the product (magnetic nanoparticles) for both applications; determine the production capacity of each plant; engineer all the manufacturing process, determining all the process units and performing all the mass and energy balances for both plants; scale-up the main equipment; and determine the global economic impact and profitability. At the end both plants are found to be technologically and economically viable, the characteristics of the final products being, however, quite different, as well as the process engineering, economic analysis, and scale-up.