Development of Solar Photo-Fenton Process for the Removal of Color, COD, and Turbidity from Institutional Wastewater

Abstract

In recent years, hard research has been aimed to develop effective technology for the treatment of wastewater and industrial effluent containing organic/inorganic contaminants. Amongst several technologies, the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) recently have played a major role in the treatment of wastewater. In this study, the treatment of institutional wastewater by solar-photo-Fenton (UV/Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2) process based on AOPs was examined in terms of % color, % turbidity, and % COD removal. The solar-UV/Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 process has revealed a higher removal of color (91%), turbidity (90%), and COD (86%) than the other processes. The effect of various experimental parameters such as hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) concentration (0.25 to 1.25 g/L) and Ferrous ion (Fe 2+) concentration (0.005 to 0.12 g/L), initial pH (2 to 10), reaction time (30 to 180 min) on the color, turbidity and COD removal has been studied to find out the optimum conditions leading to maximum removal efficiency of the solar UV/Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 process. The best results of the solar UV/Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 process of institutional wastewater treatment have been found using 0.75 g/L of H 2 O 2, 0.045 g/L of Fe 2+, pH of 4, after 120 min of reaction time. The present study revealed that the solar-UV/Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 process in an AOPs was well efficient in the institutional wastewater treatment, accomplishing a higher pollutant removal rate. The solar-UV/Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 process is an effective treatment technique for the removal of pollutants from institutional wastewater.