Fenton and Photo-fenton Processes for Degradation
of Petroleum Wastewater
Rusmidah Ali*, Wan Azelee Wan Abu Bakar and Nor Khairunnisa Liyana Ahmid,
Department of Chemistry,
Faculty of Science,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor.
E-mail-*rusmidah@kimia.fs.utm.my
N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) is the chemical used in petroleum industry to remove
CO2 and H2S from natural gas and petroleum. However, the treatment using MDEA was
hazardous and can cause pollution to the environment. Therefore, an Advanced Oxidation
Processes (AOP’s) is introduced as effective treatment of petroleum wastewater. In this study,
the degradation of standard N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and petroleum wastewater had
been studied by using Fenton reagent. The aim of the study was to investigate the efficiency of
Fenton process (Fe2+/H2O2), photo-Fenton process (Fe2+/H2O2/UV) and Fenton reagent with
photocatalyst (Fe2+/H2O2/TiO2/UV) for degradation of MDEA and petroleum wastewater under
365 nm UV-light. The systems were conducted using different ratios of Fe2+/H2O2 (1:1, 1:2, 2:1,
and 2:2) without UV light and in the presence of UV light (Fe2+/H2O2/UV). The addition of
photocatalyst in the system (Fe2+/H2O2/TiO2/UV) was also studied using 0.15 g and 0.3 g of
TiO2. The results showed that photo-Fenton process (Fe2+/H2O2/UV) with 2:2 ratio gave higher
percentage (73.53 %). The degradation rate increased with the increasing of the concentration of
ferrous ion and hydrogen peroxide but decreased with the increasing of TiO2 loading. The effect
of sunlight and ultrasonic vibration on photo-Fenton system with ratio 2:2 was also studied. The
results gave 52.28 % and 47.81 % respectively. The best method for degradation of MDEA was
applied to degrade the real petroleum wastewater. Results showed that the degradation rate is
depending on the UV light, hydrogen peroxide and ferrous ion concentration. It was proven that
the Fenton and photo-Fenton processes can be used for the treatment of petroleum wastewater.