Comparative study of oxidation of dye-Reactive Black B by different advanced oxidation processes: Fenton, electro-Fenton and photo-Fenton

This study makes a comparison between photo-Fenton and a novel electro-Fenton called Fered-Fenton to study the mineralization of 10,000 mg/L of dye-Reactive Black B (RBB) aqueous solution, which was chosen as the model dye contaminant. Results indicate that the traditional Fenton process only yields 70% mineralization. This result can be improved by using Fered-Fenton to yield 93% mineralization resulting from the action of ferrous ion regenerated on the cathode. Furthermore, photo-Fenton allows a fast and more complete destruction of dye solutions and as a result of the action of ferrous ion regenerated by UV irradiation yields more than 98% mineralization. In all treatments, the RBB is rapidly decayed to some carboxylic acid intermediates. The major intermediates found are formic acid and oxalic acid. This study finds that formic acid can be completely mineralized by photo-Fenton, but its destruction is problematic using the Fenton method. Oxalic acid is much more difficult to treat than other organic acids. It could get further mineralization with the use of the Fered-Fenton process.