M.B Kasiri - Laboratory of Water Quality Control, Kimia Payesh Ab Tabriz Company, Tabriz, Iran
N Djafarzadeh - Department of Chemistry, Islamic Azad University , Miyaneh Branch, Miyaneh, Iran

Wastewater from textile processing plants can be highly coloured and difficult to decolourise. The objective of this work was the use of Fe-containing clay as a heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalyst which possesses high catalytic activity and minimal Fe leaching for reduction of overall organic content of model solution containing C.I. Acid Red 14 (AR14) in a UV/Catalyst/H2O2 system. All experiments were performed on a cylindrical batch photo-reactor equipped whit a UV lamp (9 W 254 nm) inserted in the centre. Important operational parameters such as initial concentration of H2O2, amount of catalyst and initial pH of the solution were assessed. It was found that, more than 52% degradation of the dye with initial concentration of 8×10-5 mol L-1 was achieved in 120 min at pH 6.6, 0.02 mol L-1 H2O2 and 0.25 g L-1 of the clay. Leaching tests indicate that the activity of the heterogeneous catalyst is not due to leached iron ions, although a small amount of iron ions was found in the aqueous solution.

Azo Dye, Dye Degradation, Fe-Containing Clay, Heterogeneous Photo-Fenton, Wastewater Treatment