The use of steel slags in the heterogeneous Fenton process for decreasing the chemical oxygen demand of oil refinery wastewater.

The Fenton process is a useful and inexpensive type of advanced oxidation process for industrial wastewater treatment. This study was performed with the aim of using the steel slag as a catalyst in the heterogeneous Fenton process in order to reduce the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of oil refinery wastewater. The effects of various parameters including the reaction time (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 h), pH (2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0), the concentration of steel slag (12.5, 25.0 and 37.5 g/L), and HO concentration (100, 250, 400 and 500 mg/L) on the Fenton process were investigated. Furthermore, the effect of microwave irradiation on the process efficiency was studied by considering the optimum conditions of the mentioned parameters. The results showed that using 25.0 g/L of steel slag and 250 mg/L HO, at pH = 3.0, could reduce COD by up to 64% after 2.0 h. Also, microwave irradiation decreased the time of the process from 120 min to 25 min in the optimum conditions, but it consumed a high amount of energy. It could be concluded that steel slags had a high potential in the treatment of oil refinery wastewater through the Fenton process.