Application of Fenton's Reagent on Wastewater from a Wood Processing Industry

摘要

Wood processing industry wastewater is a high strength wastewater, not amenable to conventional biological treatment. In this study, this wastewater was chemically treated using Fenton's reagent. Based on a number of preliminary experiments, a factorial experimental procedure was designed to examine the influence of a number of parameters on the oxidation efficiency, in terms of % COD removal. These parameters were: dilution of wastewater, heptahydrated ferrous sulphate concentration, hydrogen peroxide (30%) concentration and sulphuric acid (98%) concentration. The Fenton oxidation process was very effective, because in all cases the % COD removal efficiency was over 70%. Based on the achieved results, the optimum experimental conditions regarding oxidation effectiveness parameters were estimated. The optimum experimental conditions for the oxidation of wood processing industry wastewater were found to be the following: wastewater dilution 70%, FeSO4 · 7H2O concentration 5.5 g/L, H2O2 concentration 0.95 mL/L. These values allowed achieving the highest COD removal in the experiments, namely 88% of the initial content. Conclusively, Fenton oxidation could be a feasible method for the treatment of wood processing industry wastewater.