Enhancement of Fenton Performance at Near-Neutral pH by Using Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid for Anionic Surfactant Removal from a Laundry Wastewater

Abstract

Fenton process involving Fe2+ ions and H2O2 produces OH radicals, that act as a strong oxidizing agent for degradation of a variety of organic pollutants. However the process is poor performance at neutral pH limiting its application for industrial wastewater treatment. The short coming problem, in the current study, is solved by introducing ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) as a complexing compound. The degradation was conducted through batch experiment, by varying EDTA concentration and pH. In addition, the Fe2+ and H2O2 concentrations, and the reaction time were optimized. The research results assign that the addition of EDTA could remarkably enhance the degradation of anionic surfactant, that was 96% at pH 6-8. The increase of the degradation was proportional to the concentrations of EDTA and 6 mg/L showed the optimum level. The highest degradation of 162 mg/L anionic surfactant in 20 mL of the laundry wastewater could be achieved within 30 mins by using Fe2+ 10 mM, H2O2 50 mM, and in the pre12sence of EDTA 6 mg/L at pH 7. Key words : Fenton, EDTA, degradation, surfactant, wastewater