Evaluation of Using Photovoltaic Cell in the Electro-Fenton Oxidation for the Removal of Oil Content in Refinery Wastewater

In this study, the refinery wastewater treatment system by the photovoltaic electro-Fenton oxidation process was presented, which integrates the environmentally friendly photovoltaic and autonomous solar energy along with the capability of electro for oil content removing in the refinery wastewater. The direct connection between the photovoltaic panel and the electro-oxidation reactor can be accomplished without using batteries. This connection increases the sustainability of the system and eliminates the environment hazard resulted from the inappropriate disposal of the batteries. The photovoltaic electro-oxidation system is commonly made for multipurpose usage depending on the instantaneous solar irradiation by setting the volume of the wastewater to the supplied current intensity that provided by the photovoltaic array. The effect of several parameters that have critical impacts on the system efficiency of the presented process has studied by the Minitab-17 and the response surface methodology. Speed of agitation, solution electrolysis time, and the temperature have been presented and the optimal levels that corresponds to the optimal conditions were investigated and presented as well. Results of the experimental work showed that the working conditions of the agitation speed was 175 rpm, temperature was 70 oC and 15 min-reaction time, the concentration of oil in the treated refinery wastewater (RWW) was significantly decreased from 96.5 ppm (initial value) to specific values less than 2 ppm (the permissible limit), a removal percentage with an amount more that 98% and 20.4 kWh/m3 for the energy consumption were obtained. The suggested process is suitable for refinery wastewater remediation, especially for small amounts of oil content in RWW.