Photocatalysis coupled electro-Fenton process for treatment of acrylamide wastewater: an optimised study

Electro-Fenton is a commonly used approach for pollutant removal from different wastewater that requires high energy consumption. Coupling electro-Fenton with solar energy could potentially overcome high power consumption. Thus, this study combined photocatalysis with three-dimensional electro-Fenton to treat acrylamide (AM) wastewater. The removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), and total organic carbon (TOC) in photocatalysis-coupled electro-Fenton were studied. The effects of current density, iron powder dosage, plate spacing, and photocatalyst dosage on COD and NH₃-N removal were also optimised using response surface methodology (RSM). The photocatalysis coupled three-dimensional electro-Fenton reduced energy consumption compared to single photocatalysis or electro-Fenton technology. The COD and NH₃-N removal rates were 82.444% and 92.810%, respectively, at the current density of 16.000 mA/cm², iron powder dosage of 1.330 g, plate spacing of 16.643 mm, photocatalyst dosage of 0.2 g. This study demonstrated that organic pollutants can be degraded efficiently at a low concentration of catalysts coupled with the electro-Fenton process, offering a low-energy consumption treatment of wastewater.