Effect of UV light on pentachlorophenol removal in the electro- Fenton process

This research studied the effect of UV light on pentachlorophenol (PCP) removal in the electro-Fenton (EF) process.
PCP was used as the pollutant in this study. The effects of Fenton’s reagent, i.e. hydrogen peroxide concentration, solution pH, and treatment time by EF (EF) and photoelectro Fenton (PEF) processes, were studied to determine rates of PCP removal. The results showed that a better performance and a high removal efficiency were achieved by coupling UV radiation and the EF process.
EF processes required more time to remove PCP, while after a reaction time of minutes, the PEF achieved a removal efficiency of 90.4%; this value is higher than the maximum efficiency of the EF process (83.44% after 40 minutes). The kinetic mechanisms of both processes were examined and compared. The rate constants at optimum conditions were 0.0455 and 0.0579 min−1 for EF and PEF processes, respectively.
Removal efficiency was obtained in the order of PEF > EF.