Treatment of Furfural Wastewater by (AOPs) Photo-Fenton Method

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the application of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) in the treatment of wastewater contaminated with furfural. The AOPs investigated is the homogeneous photo-Fenton (UV/H₂O₂/Fe⁺²) process. The experiments were conducted by using cylindrical stainless steel batch photo-reactor. The influence of different variables: initial concentration of H₂O₂ (300-1300mg/L), Fe⁺²(20-70mg/L), pH(2-7) and initial concentration of furfural (50-300 mg/L) and their relationship with the mineralization efficiency were studied.

 Complete mineralization for the system UV/H₂O₂/Fe⁺² was achieved at: initial H₂O₂ = 1300mg/L, Fe⁺² = 30mg/L, pH=3, temperature =30^oC and irradiation time of 60 min, for 300mg/L furfural concentration. The results have shown that the oxidation reagent H₂O₂ plays a very important role in the furfural mineralization.