Circular biorefinery pathways for pesticide wastewater treatment: Technologies and applications from farm to district scale

Agricultural pesticide wastewater represents a significant environmental and public health challenge, highlighting the need for scalable and resource-efficient treatment strategies. This review adopted a PRISMA-based methodology using the Scopus and Web of Science databases, leading to the analysis of 176 peer-reviewed studies published between 2014 and 2025. The selected literature was critically examined to assess pesticide wastewater treatment technologies, including adsorption, membrane filtration (MF), advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), biological treatments, and hybrid configurations. Particular attention was given to their treatment performance, scalability from farm to district level, resource recovery potential, economic feasibility, and life-cycle assessment (LCA) implications. Among the evaluated systems, hybrid configurations combining biological processes with AOPs or MF generally showed higher removal performance, often achieving more than 80% pesticide residue removal, while offering greater adaptability and compatibility with circular biorefinery frameworks. The review identifies key opportunities for resource recovery, including methane and hydrogen production, nutrient recycling, water reuse, and chemical reclamation, thereby supporting circular bioeconomy objectives. Overall, this review proposes an integrated, multiscale circular biorefinery perspective for sustainable pesticide wastewater management and identifies research priorities for developing resilient, safe, and resource-efficient agricultural water treatment systems.