The objective of this study is to investigate the application of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) in the treatment of wastewater contaminated with furfural. The AOPs investigated is the homogeneous photo-Fenton (UV/H2O2/Fe+2) process. The experiments were conducted by using cylindrical stainless steel batch photo-reactor. The influence of different variables: initial concentration of H2O2 (300-1300mg/L), Fe+2(20-70mg/L), pH(2-7) and initial concentration of furfural (50-300 mg/L) and their relationship with the mineralization efficiency were studied.
Complete mineralization for the system UV/H2O2/Fe+2 was achieved at: initial H2O2 = 1300mg/L, Fe+2 = 30mg/L, pH=3, temperature =30oC and irradiation time of 60 min, for 300mg/L furfural concentration. The results have shown that the oxidation reagent H2O2 plays a very important role in the furfural mineralization.
