Characterization of effects of selected organic substances on decomposition of hydrogen peroxide during Fenton reaction

This study aims to investigate the effects of selected organic substances on the degradation of hydrogen peroxide during the Fenton reaction. Since the presence of organic substances can strongly affect the mechanism of the Fenton reaction, the information on effects of organic substances on the reaction would be a vital guide to the success of its application to the destruction of organics in wastewater. Several organic compounds having different structures were selected as model pollutants: 4-chlorophenol, 1,4-dioxane, chloroform, a dye (reactive black-5), and EDTA. Oxidation of 4-chlorophenol and reactive black-5 resulted in enormously fast degradation of hydrogen peroxide, while others such as 1,4-dioxane and chloroform showed much slower degradation. These experimental data were compared to simulation results from a computational model based on a simple áOH-driven oxidation model. Modelling results for chloroform and 1,4-dioxane were in relatively good agreement with the experimental data, while those for 4-chlorophenol and reactive black-5 were very different from the experimental data. The results for EDTA showed a different trend to those for other compounds. From these results, classification of organic substances into several sub-groups was tried.