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The spread of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the pandemic COVID-19 has emerged as a global matter of concern in the last couple of months. It has rapidly spread around the globe, which initially began in the city of Wuhan, People’s Republic of China and is hypothesized to originate from the group of Rhinolophus bats. Till date, there has been no clinically proven vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 and thus the doctors are employing the other well-known techniques, which have previously successfully tackled similar other human coronaviruses. To prevent the further spread of COVID-19, doctors are advising isolation of the infected patients, and also regular washing of hands and the use of face mask for the common people. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the countries are going for nationwide lockdown as the only preventive measure to avert community transmission of this disease, which is having economic, social and psychological effect on the general mass. Therefore, this comprehensive review article encapsulates the biological evolution of human coronaviruses, probable treatment and control strategies to combat COVID-19 and, its impact on human life.

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur-721 302, West Bengal, India E-mail: ghangrekar@civil.iitkgp.ac.in Manuscript received online 30 November 2019, accepted 01 March 2020 Xenobiotics are man-made, non-biodegradable compounds present in the environment at higher concentrations than usual. Phenols, dyes, surfactants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals are some of the xenobiotics. These pollutants have an adverse effect on the environment because of their toxicity, complex structure and carcinogenic nature and are not efficiently removed by conventional wastewater treatment technologies. Researchers round the globe have demonstrated various physical and chemical methods for the treatment of xenobiotics. This mini-review focuses on the application of electrocoagulation for the removal of xenobiotics. Different operating parameters that affect the removal efficiency, the types of electrodes used and the treatment cost of xenobiotics are elaborated in this article.