Along with other oil-producing regions of the world, environmental pollution is characteristic also for the Absheron Peninsula of Azerbaijan, which has long been subject to the impact of various anthropogenic factors. A large amount of such toxic substances as heavy metals, hydrocarbons and surface-active agents, and so on were released into soil and water basins leading to the change of natural ecosystem throughout the region. A primary goal of this chapter was to study the level of heavy metal pollution in the Absheron industrial region, while evaluating the potential ecological risk posed by each toxic metal including Hg, Cd, As, Cr, Pb, Cu, Ni, and Zn. Analysis of the calculated values of pollution index (PI), enrichment factor (EF), geoaccumulation index (I geo), and ecological risk factor (E i) indicates the contribution of anthropogenic sources to heavy metal accumulation in soils and sediments of the study area.

Degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater was investigated by photocatalysis method using anatase modification of titanium-dioxide (TiO 2) catalyst with different structures. Laboratory experiments were carried out with industrial wastewaters consisting of different contents of organic pollutants. Two types of TiO 2 catalyst: TiO 2 having a size near to nanoparticles (about 3-4 micron in size) and the nanostructured 15 nm sized TiO 2 were used to find optimum conditions of photocatalytic degradation and removal of organic compounds from wastewater. This paper discusses the effect of various parameters on the degradation rate including the catalyst concentration, process duration as well as the catalytic effectiveness of the TiO 2 particles' size. In addition, the effect of UV and visible light sources on the degradation process was studied. The process performed with nanostructured TiO 2 catalyst under visible light was very successfully allowing best degradation of organic compounds.