Application of intensified Fenton oxidation to the treatment of hospital wastewater: Kinetics, ecotoxicity and disinfection

Fenton oxidation has proved to be effective for the treatment of a real hospital wastewater. The intensification of the process viz. the improvement on the efficiency of H2O2consumption, by increasing the temperature, is necessary to operate in a single step and avoid high reaction times and the need of large H2O2 and iron concentrations. This approach would allow taking advantage of the heat energy contained in the laundry stream since the washing process is performed at high temperature to assure disinfectionof the hospital textiles. In this work, temperatures within the range of 50-90 °C have been tested, which allowed an effective oxidation of the real wastewater ([COD]0 = 365 mg L-1, [Phenols]0 = 8.4 mg L-1, [total coliforms]0 = 4.16 × 106 MPN/100 mL, 5 toxicity units) with the stoichiometric amount of H2O2 (1000 mg L-1) and a relatively low iron concentration (25 mg L-1 Fe3+). Operating at 90 °C, complete disappearance of phenolic compounds and 70% and 50% reduction of COD and TOC were achieved in 1 h reaction time. Time evolution of those global parameters were appropriately fitted to pseudo-first and second order kinetic equations, providing a useful approach for design purposes. The main by-products were short-chain organic acids (oxalic and formic), being the final effluents non-toxic. Disinfection of the hospital wastewater was also achieved at all the operating temperatures tested, as confirmed by the absence of coliformsThis research has been supported by the CM through the project S2013/MAE-2716 and by the Spanish MINECO through the project CTQ2013-41963-R. M. Munoz thanks the Spanish MINECO for a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación postdoctoral contract (IJCI-2014-19427