José Antonio García-Hortal

Mineralization of hetero bi-functional reactive dye in aqueous solution by Fenton and photo-Fenton reactions

This study focused on the advanced oxidation of the hetero bi-functional reactive dye Sumifix Supra Yellow 3RF (CI Reactive Yellow 145) using dark Fenton and photo-Fenton conditions in a lab-scale experiment. A 23 factorial design was used to evaluate the effects of the three key factors: temperature, Fe(II) and H2O2 concentrations, for a dye concentration of 250 mg L−1 with chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 172 mg L−1 O2 at pH = 3. The response function was the COD reduction. This methodology lets us find the effects and interactions of the studied variables and their roles in the efficiency of the treatment process. In the optimization, the correlation coefficients for the model (R2) were 0.948 and 0.965 for Fenton and photo-Fenton treatments, respectively. Under optimized reaction conditions: pH = 3, temperature = 298 K, [H2O2] = 11.765 mM and [Fe(II)] = 1.075 mM; 60 min of treatment resulted in a 79% and 92.2% decrease in COD, for the dye taken as the model organic compound, after Fenton and photo-Fenton treatments, respectively.