Fe(III)-oxalate-mediated solar degradation of furfural in the presence of persulfate: operational parameters and artificial neural network modeling

Furfural is an organic matter which is commonly used in solid resin plastic production and paper manufacturing. In this study, the removal of furfural was carried out using oxalate (OX) and activated persulfate (PS) with Fe(III). The effect of pH, Fe(III) dosage, OX ion dosage, species radicals, the molar ratio of citric acid, coexisting substances, environmental applications, reaction mechanisms, and intermediates compound on the removal of furfural were investigated. In addition, artificial neural network (ANN) model was designed to determine the optimum value and importance of the effective variables to attain the higher efficiency. This study indicates the application of ANN for prediction of performances in competitive advance oxidation process. Intermediate compounds were identified, including ferulic acid -CO2, 2-furfural, oxime-, methoxy-phenyl, 2,2'-bifuran, and cyclohexasiloxane. The higher degradation efficiency was 85.8%, which was obtained at furfural 40 mg/L, Fe 0.002 g, PS 0.05 g, pH 4, and the molar ratio of citric acid: 1:1. Comparison between the photodegradation efficiency of experimental results and the predicted results of the designed ANN models showed that both processes have almost equal efficiency.