Effect of Fenton's reagent on the degradability of CI Reactive Yellow 15

As an advanced oxidation method, Fenton's reagent has an advantage that it combines both oxidation and coagulation techniques. The aim of this study was to efficiently operate Fenton's reagent oxidation to degrade a reactive dye, CI Reactive Yellow 15, which is non-biodegradable and has high chemical oxygen demand. In addition, performance of the Fenton oxidation process for dye solution was determined by measuring the chemical oxygen demand and colour removal. The influence of the main operating parameters, iron sulphate and hydrogen peroxide concentration, pH, temperature and dye concentration have been studied, in a batch-type operation. The results obtained show that the best pH value for decolorisation was pH 3, with an average decolorisation of 98.7% and average removal of chemical oxygen demand ca. 93.3% at 15 °C for a 0.065 molar ratio of Fenton's reagent. An increase in temperature resulted in higher removal rates.