Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Abdolmotaleb Seid Mohammadi ¹
• Ghorban Asgari ¹
• Afshin Ebrahimi ²
• Hossein Movahedian Attar ²
• Zahra Sharifi ³

¹ Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

² Environment Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Isfahan, Iran and Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, IUMS, Isfahan, Iran

³ Water and Wastewater Lab., Hamadan Health Center, Hamadan, Iran

Abstract

Aims: This study was conducted for degradation of 4-chlorophenol by microwave (MW) radiations alone and in combination with hydrogen peroxide from aqueous solution. Materials and Methods: A modified domestic microwave oven was used alone and in combination with hydrogen peroxide for removing 4-chlorophenol. Furthermore, the influences of pH value, irradiation time, the power of MW radiations, and the initial concentration of 4-chlorophenol were studied. Results: It was shown that 4-chlorophenol removal efficiency extremely depend on the concentration of hydrogen peroxide, pH value, MW irradiation power and initial 4-chlorophenol concentration. The optimum conditions obtained for the best degradation rate were pH = 10.5, H ₂ O ₂ concentration of about 0.1 mol/l, and MW irradiation power of about 600 W. Other result shows that the best degradation rate of 4-chlorophenol was obtained when initial 4-chlorophenol concentration was 50 mg/l. Also the amount of the specific energy consumption in this method was 17460 kwh/kg of the removed organic compound. Conclusion: This result shows that MW irradiation in the presence of hydrogen peroxide can greatly enhance the degradation of 4-chlorophenol. However, the high consumption of energy for this method must be taken into consideration.

Keywords

• Advanced oxidation processes
• hydroxyl radical
• microwave
• petrochemical wastewater
• 4-chlorophenol