Recent developments in chelate degradation.

Chelating agents are used in various industrial processes to inactivate transition metals by forming cyclic complexes. As nitrogen containing compounds, these substances increase the nitrogen load in wastewater. Also, they increase the heavy metal concentrations in the wastewater effluent. It has been long recognised that EDTA and DTPA are relatively recalcitrant compounds and thus pass through wastewater treatment without adequate removal. A number of interesting studies on the degradability of EDTA and DTPA--either by advanced oxidation processes or biological processes--have been carried out recently. This review focuses mainly on these two compounds.