Optimization and kinetic study of Fenton treated industrial wastewater using response surface method

Abstract

In this study, wastewater from food industry has been treated in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal using Fenton process under response surface methodology (RSM). The effect of four independent variables such as reaction time, pH, HP/Fe molar ratio and H2O2 /wastewater volume ratio (mL/L) are studied on the COD of wastewater. Experimental data are optimized using Box Behnken design (BBD). The optimum conditions are experimentally found at reaction time of 22.30 min, pH of 3.22, HP/Fe molar ratio of 5 and H2O2/wastewater (mL/L) of 2.64, for COD removal of 80.1%. The kinetic study is undertaken at different initial COD concentrations of 1920, 2304, 2688, 3072 and 3840 mg/L. The overall kinetics can be described by second order followed by zero order rate equation. The rate constant for second order is found to be 6 × 10-5 L/mg min and for zero order was found to be 2.5 mg/L min.