Investigation of Oxidation Methods for Waste Soy Sauce Treatment

To obtain a suitable oxidation method for removing the color and lowering the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of waste soy sauce, Fenton (Fe²⁺), Fenton-like (Fe³⁺), and ozone (O₃) oxidation methods are used as the target reactions. In experimental conditions for Fenton oxidation, the dose of Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ was varied between 100 mg/L and 300 mg/L. The dose of hydrogen peroxide for the reaction was injected from 100-1000 mg/L. For ozone oxidation, the pH was increased from 3 to 14 and the O₃-containing gas was supplied continuously for 30 min through a gas diffuser at the bottom of the reactor at different applied O₃ doses (10-90 mg/L). We subjected it to a simple 1:20 dilution with deionized water to identify the comparison result in detail. O₃ oxidation shows the highest efficiencies of color removal (81.1%) and COD lowering (64.9%) among the three oxidation methods. This is mainly due to the fact that it has a relatively large amount of hydroxyl radical, resulting in the degradation of organics. Thus, O₃ oxidation could be a promising method for removing the color and lowering the COD of waste soy sauce. The critical parameters (pH and applied O₃ dose) were varied systematically to optimize O₃ oxidation. It was found that the optimum pH and applied O₃ dose are 11.0 mg/L and 50.0 mg/L, respectively (color removal = 34.2%, COD removal = 27.4%).