p-Chlorophenol Oxidation in Industrial Effluent by Ultrasonic/Fenton Technology

Phenolic compounds have become a cause for of worldwide concern due to their persistence, toxicity and health risks. Hence, removal of these pollutants from aqueous effluents is an important practical problem. Ultrasonic technology may be used for water and wastewater treatment as an advanced oxidation process. Application of this technology, leads to the decomposition of many organic compounds during cavitation process. The degradation of 4-chlorophenol in aqueous solution under sonolysis at 45 kHz coupled with fFenton process was is investigated. The oxidation rate was influenced by many factors, such as the pH value, the amount of hydrogen peroxide, catalyst (FeSO4) and initial p-chlorophenol concentration. The experimental results showed that the decomposition of p-chlorophenol was affected by the various reaction conditions. The optimum conditions obtained for the best degradation rate were pH=3, H2O2 concentration of 0.05 mol/L and 0.025 mmol/L for catalyst, respectively. Also it was observed that the degradation of p-chlorophenol depended on its initial concentration.