Nano zero-valent iron on activated carbon cloth support as Fenton-like catalyst for efficient color and COD removal from melanoidin wastewater.

To reduce undesired iron leaching in Fenton reaction and to realize reusability of catalyst, chitosan-coated activated carbon cloth support loaded with nano zero-valent iron (ACC-CH-nZVI) was applied as a heterogeneous Fenton catalyst to treat melanoidin wastewater. Chitosan coating on ACC by chemical crosslinking results in 6% chitosan on ACC subsequently loading 3.5% iron. At optimum conditions, ACC-CH-nZVI leads to 88.4% and 76.2% of color and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, respectively, upon treating synthetic melanoidin wastewater of 8000 mg/l COD. The corresponding weight ratio of consumed H2O2 to COD is 1.02, far below the stoichiometric ratio 2.125, indicating the economic value of this catalyst. Reusability of ACC-CH-nZVI is demonstrated for five cycles of treatment with minimal iron leaching (<2%). The high removal efficiency and very low levels of iron leaching suggests that ACC-CH-nZVI is a highly efficient and cost-effective catalyst for Fenton-like oxidation of non-biodegradable organic wastes in water.