Treatment of non-biodegradable cutting oil wastewater by ultrasonication-Fenton oxidation process

To treat cutting oil wastewater produced in metal surface treatment industry, Ultrasonication (US)-Fenton process, which is one of the advanced oxidation processes, was used. The optimum conditions to treat non-biodegradable pollutants using the US-Fenton process were that the application rates of H₂O₂ and FeSO₄ were 10% and 3 g/L, respectively, the value of pH was 3, and the ultrasonication time was 30 min. It identified non-degradable pollutants such as ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) and Triethanolamine (TEA) in the cutting oil wastewater. TLC analysis of two compounds of treated water by the coagulation process was similar to that of raw water. However, TLC analysis of two compounds of US-Fenton process was different from that of raw water, meaning that US-Fenton process decomposed the EDTA and TEA. To study the possibility of application with the US-Fenton process to pilot plant, the pollutants treatment efficiency of three different methods, such as US-Fenton process, activated sludge process and coagulation process, in continuous experiments were compared. The removal rate of pollutants by the US-Fenton process according to the effluent time was higher than any other processes. The removal rates of COD, SS, T-N and T-P by US-Fenton process were 98, 93, 75 and 95%, respectively.