Reduction of COD in wastewater from a textile industry by Electro-fenton process

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have led the way in the treatment of aqueous waste and are rapidly becoming the chosen technology for many applications. In this paper, COD reduction of textile industry wastewater by electro-Fenton (EF) oxidation, was studied at batch experimental conditions. The wastewater samples with a COD of 590 mg l^-1 in average were taken from the outlet of an equalization tank of a textile industry in the Marmara Region in Turkey. The wastewater samples were treated in a batch reactor equipped with two iron electrodes. The EF tests were conducted at different H₂O₂ doses such as 313, 626, 940, and 1253 mg l^-1 and constant electrical power of 24 W and pH of 3. For each EF test electricity consumption was determined based on per unit of COD mass removed
(kW kg^-1). The COD removal increased with decreasing H₂O₂ dose. The highest treatment efficiency was attained at 313 mg l^-1 of H₂O₂, by which more than 85% of COD was removed within 10 min of reaction time. These results indicate that the EF process can be considered as an alternative method for textile wastewater treatment.