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Decontamination of real urban sewage—comparison between Fenton and electrochemical oxidation

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Abstract

Advanced oxidation processes have been used for wastewater treatment due to their capacity to reduce the organic loading and for their fast reactions. In this paper, we explore the viability of isolated and sequential use of electrochemical oxidation and Fenton processes into treatment of real raw urban sewage. The electrochemical process was carried out using DSA®-Cl2 electrodes and factorial planning in order to investigate the influence of pH, current density, and electrolyte. Fenton reaction was also used and H2O2 and Fe2+ concentration effects were investigated. The efficiency was estimated by chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and in the optimized conditions the effluent was characterized by turbidity, suspended/dissolved/total solids, ammonia, chloride ions, free chlorine, nitrite, and potassium analysis and bioassays with Artemia ssp. and Lactuca sativa. The study demonstrated that the use of electrochemical technique followed by Fenton allowed an improvement in the degradation of organic matter and reduction of turbidity and solid content, reaching reductions of 86.8, 96.4, 99.4, 56.1, and 66.7% for COD, turbidity, SS, DS, and TS, respectively. The associated treatment also contributed to the reduction of energy consumption by 74.9%, from the 23.9 kWh m−3 observed during the electrochemical treatment isolated to the 6 kWh m−3 during the associated process. All the treatments presented toxicity reduction, with the electrochemical process achieving the best results.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Funding

The authors received financial support of this work from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education (CAPES), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, and the Foundation for Research Support of the State of Alagoas (FAPEAL). José Leandro da S. Duarte received grant from CAPES/Brazil (88882.316136/2019–01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Muniz Falcão State School, Cacimbinhas, AL, CEP 57.570-000, Brazil

    Jenivaldo L. de Araújo

  2. Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus A.C. Simões, Maceió, AL, CEP 57072-970, Brazil

    Jenivaldo L. de Araújo, Fábio A. S. Santos, Cenira M. de Carvalho, José Leandro S. Duarte, Josealdo Tonholo & Carmem L. P. S. Zanta

  3. Federal Institute of Amapa, Macapá, AP, CEP: 68909-398, Brazil

    Jaceguai S. da Silva

Authors
  1. Jenivaldo L. de Araújo
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  2. Jaceguai S. da Silva
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Contributions

Jenivaldo L. de Araújo: validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft.

Jaceguai S. da Silva: validation, formal analysis.

Fábio A. S. Santos: validation, data curation.

Cenira M. de Carvalho: validation, data curation.

José Leandro S. Duarte: data curation, writing—review and editing, visualization.

Josealdo Tonholo: conceptualization, methodology, resources, writing—review and editing, visualization, supervision.

Carmem L. P. S. Zanta: conceptualization, methodology, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Leandro S. Duarte.

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de Araújo, J.L., da Silva, J.S., Santos, F.A.S. et al. Decontamination of real urban sewage—comparison between Fenton and electrochemical oxidation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 35061–35072 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18718-w

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