Fenton: A Systematic Review of Its Application in Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

The use of new technologies for the removal of pollutants from wastewater has become globally necessary due to the complexity and facilities defined by conventional treatments. Advanced oxidative processes, specifically the Fenton process, have become widely applied given their low cost and ease of use. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the progression of the scientific publications on the implementation of Fenton process, investigating their space–time evolution. Additionally, useful solutions, trends, and gaps in the applications for the removal of pollutants with this methodology were identified, and also different remediation strategies and the design of new treatments for wastewaters were identified within this scientometric analysis. Bibliometric research was conducted in two scientific databases, Web of Science and Scopus, from 2011 to 2022, and we identified 932 and 1263 studies with the word “Fenton,” respectively. When these publications are associated with the treatment of alternative effluents, an increase in publications from 2011 (r = 0.95, p < 0.001) and 2013 (r = 0.93, p < 0.001) was observed when analyzing both databases, indicating the relevance of the theme. Among these studies, several of them were conducted on the bench scale (89.8% and 98.3%, Web of Science and Scopus, respectively) and in aqueous matrix (97.8% and 98.4%, Web of Science and Scopus, respectively), with being China the main country with publications associated with these words (28.33% and 41.9%), while Brazil is related to 3.65% and 2.29% of the total studies in Web of Science and Scopus, respectively. In addition, this review provides a guideline for new applications for different species in the matrices and describes the evolution of technological solutions to meet Sustainable Development Goal 6: clean water and sanitation.

Application of advanced oxidation processes for domestic and industrial wastewater treatment

“…However, the Fenton process drawbacks are related to the scale up associated with the implementation costs [50] and to the fact that the process must be divided into two stages: one to adjust the wastewater to be treated to the acidic pH (pH 3) and add the Fenton reagents (Fe 2+ and H 2 O 2 ); and the other to increase the pH to neutral (pH 7) and separate the ferric ions (Fe 3+ and orange color of wastewater) generated as by-products process from the effluent produced by sedimentation processes [46]. It is noteworthy to say that Fenton's advanced oxidation process may involve additional costs, due to the amount of acid required to be added to the wastewater to be treated to adjust the pH 3 (ideal pH level to manage the removal of pollutants), since if the pH of the wastewater to be treated is not adjusted to 3 beforehand, the removal effectiveness of the Fenton process of the conventional and emerging pollutants of interest may be affected.…”