Automatic dosage of hydrogen peroxide in solar photo-Fenton plants: development of a control strategy for efficiency enhancement.

The solar photo-Fenton process is widely used for the elimination of pollutants in aqueous effluent and, as such, is amply cited in the literature. In this process, hydrogen peroxide represents the highest operational cost. Up until now, manual dosing of H(2)O(2) has led to low process performance. Consequently, there is a need to automate the hydrogen peroxide dosage for use in industrial applications. As it has been demonstrated that a relationship exists between dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration and hydrogen peroxide consumption, DO can be used as a variable in optimising the hydrogen peroxide dosage. For this purpose, a model was experimentally obtained linking the dynamic behaviour of DO to hydrogen peroxide consumption. Following this, a control system was developed based on this model. This control system - a proportional and integral controller (PI) with an anti-windup mechanism - has been tested experimentally. The assays were carried out in a pilot plant under sunlight conditions and with paracetamol used as the model pollutant. In comparison with non-assisted addition methods (a sole initial or continuous addition), a decrease of 50% in hydrogen peroxide consumption was achieved when the automatic controller was used, driving an economic saving and an improvement in process efficiency.