Performance Comparison of Fenton and Fenton Modified with Copper in Raw Wastewater Disinfection for reuse in Agriculture

Irrigation of agricultural crops using wastewater will increase، in some cases، their growth by 40 to 60 percent. However، this has a high risks for human health because of the presence of higher number of pathogenic organisms. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility use of Fenton and modified Fenton with copper for the disinfection of raw wastewater.

After primarily laboratory physicochemical and biological analysis، the disinfection process was performed in three different phases in each process. First، the disinfectants were injected separately، then we performed disinfection using Fe++ and cu++ ions combined with hydrogen peroxide in order to determine synergistic effect of each catalyst. Direct method was used for fecal coliforms counting.

Hydrogen peroxide maximum efficiency for inactivation of fecal coliforms was only 0. 66log inactivation. Fenton and modified Fenton with copper ions showed a remarkable effect on the bacterial inactivation so that Fenton and modified Fenton with 1 and 2 mg/l of Cu++ inactivated coliforms by 4. 73، 3. 28، and 4. 88 log respectively.

Application of HP alone for the disinfection of raw wastewater is not practicable due to low observed efficiency. However، its combination with ions such as Fe++ and Cu++ increases HP performance in disinfection and has a notable synergistic effect on HP disinfection power، where، in the presence of each catalyst، hydrogen peroxide can reduce the fecal coliforms of raw wastewater to meet the Iranian Environmental Protection Agency Standards.