Effect of deflocculation on the efficiency of sludge reduction by Fenton process.

A novel approach to improve the efficiency of Fenton treatment for sludge reduction through the implication of a deflocculating agent citric acid, for the exclusion of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from waste-activated sludge (WAS), was investigated. Deflocculation was achieved with 0.06 g/g suspended solids (SS) of citric acid dosage. Fenton optimization studies using response surface methodology (RSM) revealed that 0.5 and 0.0055 g/g SS were the optimal dosages of H2O2 and Fe2+. The addition of a cation-binding agent set the pH value of sludge to 5 which did not affect the Fenton efficiency. The results presented in this study shows the advantage of deflocculating the sludge as SS and volatile suspended solids (VSS) reductions were found to be higher in the deflocculated (53 and 63 %, respectively) than in the flocculated (22 and 34 %, respectively) sludges. Kinetic investigation of the treatment showed that the rate of the reaction was four times higher in the deflocculated sludge than control. The methodology reported in this manuscript was successfully applied to a real case were the deflocculated mediated Fenton process reduced the sludge disposal cost from 297.8 to 61.9 US dollars/ton of sludge

Ferrioxalate-induced solar photo-Fenton treatment of natural rubber latex wastewaters

This study evaluated a ferrioxalate-induced solar photo-Fenton process for natural rubber latex wastewater treatment. The reaction was carried out in a laboratory-scale solar photo-Fenton plug flow baffle reactor. An optimization study was performed using a central composite experimental design including the following variables: pH, initial concentrations of H2O2, Fe2+, and oxalic acid. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency was determined by the analysis of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. Under the optimum conditions of pH = 4, Fe2+ = 1.3 g/L, oxalic acid = 2.25 g/L, H2O2 = 82.5 g/L, and solar irradiation time of 6 hours, the COD removal efficiency was 99%. Treatment of latex wastewater by ferrioxalate-induced solar photo-Fenton process increased biodegradability ratio from 0.36 to 0.7 in 2 hours. The overall cost of ferrioxalate-induced solar photo-Fenton oxidation for the treatment of 5 m3 of latex wastewater per day was estimated to be US$85/m3.</jats:p

Combined homogeneous and heterogeneous advanced oxidation process for the treatment of tannery wastewaters

This study investigated the practical application of combined advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), such as homogeneous TiO2 photocatalysis and heterogeneous photo-Fenton, for the treatment of tannery wastewaters. An optimization study was conducted on the photocatalytic degradation of tannery wastewaters, in order to understand the effects of different operating parameters on the degradation kinetics. The chemical oxygen demand of tannery wastewater decreased from an initial level of 3,400 mg/L in raw wastewater to 140 mg/L (96% removal) in wastewater treated by the combined advanced oxidation process at optimum pH 7, TiO2 dosage of 0.2 g/L, Fe2+ dosage of 0.5 g/L, H2O2 dosage of 1.8 g/L and a treatment time of 4 hours. The biodegradability of wastewater increased from an initial level of 0.4 to 0.7 after treatment under optimum experimental conditions at a treatment time of 60 min. An annual treatment cost of US$21.34/m3 of treated water was obtained. The combined advanced oxidation process proved to be an efficient and appropriate technique for the effective removal of complex organic compounds in industrial wastewater.</jats:p