Removal of Phenol and Benzene Using Photo Fenton Reagent

Industrial wastewater treatment has become an important issue in countries of the West
Asia region, primarily due to the increasing concern associated with environment and
health. This project is intended to address one major issue of wastewater management in
petroleum refining industry; which is compliance with local EPA on their effluent
discharge. Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP) has the capability of total destruction
of many organic pollutants. Particularly, photo-Fenton oxidation has recently emerged
as a very promising technology because of its high efficiency and cost-effectiveness
compared with other AOPs. The experiments were conducted in a small scale apparatus
with constant monitoring of pH, temperature and UV source. In interpreting the result,
one important assumption is that the degradation of phenol and benzene is directly
related to the level of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) reduction, due to no available
means to quantitatively determine the final concentration of both pollutants. Among
parameters that are crucial to control in the experiment are Fenton reagent ratio,
temperature, pH, reaction time and UV irradiation. Based on the experiment conducted,
the optimum ratio of Fenton Reagent is Fe:H202=l:25, at COD reduction of 53.8%. The
optimum temperature for operating photo-Fenton reaction is at 40°C, at COD reduction
of 68%. This generally concludes that operating at higher temperature increases the
degradation rate by 26% than operating at ambient temperature. However, trade-off
between these parameters is essential for practicality, especially when cost and safety
limit are of major elements to be considered in the design of wastewater treatment
system. The result however does not portray the overall performance of photo-Fenton
process since no direct correlation exists between the extents of COD reduction and
photo-degradation rates of the studied compounds. Future recommendations are
proposed to further enhance understanding and appreciable towards the photo-Fenton
process in degrading refractory compounds. It is hoped that this project will contribute
to the development of a new degradation technique in wastewater management.