Use of a Fenton-Like Process Based on Nano-Haematite to Treat Synthetic Wastewater Contaminated by Phenol: Process Investigation and Statistical Optimization

Phenolic compounds are priority chemicals which, when discharged in wastewater, need to be removed. Photochemical treatment has been demonstrated to be very effective for this task. This paper reports a study to assess the potential of a nano-photo-Fenton-like reagent (NFLR), based on synthesized haematite (- nano-crystalline powder, to remove phenol from wastewater. The use of haematite nano-structures as a source of in NFLR provides a novel and low-cost nano-catalysis treatment of phenol wastewater. The study evaluated the effect of the initial concentration of the phenol pollutant (200-1000 mg/L), and the photo-Fenton parameters such as the nano-haematite and concentrations (100-800 mg/L) and pH range from 2 to 8. NFLR was able to remove about 98% of phenol in about 20 min from a solution initially containing 400 ppm of phenol. Furthermore, a Box-Behnken factorial design was applied to optimize the operating NFLR parameters. The optimum conditions for phenol removal were shown to be 398 mg/L for , 41 mg/L for and 3.25 for pH. The degradation obtained using a response surface methodology is compared with that recorded experimentally at the optimized values. The NFLR, based on nano-haematite, was found to be an effective treatment for the removal of phenol from wastewater.