Comparative Investigation of COD and Color Removal From Real Textile Wastewater by Electro‐Fenton and Photo‐Electro‐Fenton Methods: The Effect of Operational Parameters and Cost Analysis

With the rapid growth and development of the textile industry in the world, textile wastewater production has also increased in parallel to this. In this study, the effects of pH (2.0–4.5), current density (10–60 A/m 2 ), and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) concentrations (250–2000 mg/L) on COD and color removal from textile wastewater by electro‐Fenton (EF) and photo‐electro‐Fenton (PEF) methods were comparatively investigated. Under the optimum conditions for the EF method (pH: 2.0, current density: 30 A/m 2 , H 2 O 2 : 1500 mg/L, interelectrode distance: 1.5 cm, stirring speed: 250 rpm, experimental time: 30 min), 84.13% COD and 79.49% color removal were obtained. For the PEF method, under optimum conditions (pH: 2.0, current density: 20 A/m 2 , H 2 O 2 : 1000 mg/L, UV lamp: 16 W, distance between electrodes: 1.5 cm, stirring speed: 250 rpm, experimental time 60 min), 92.06% COD and 84.62% color removal were obtained. The total treatment costs for the EF and PEF methods were calculated as 13.116 $/m 3 and 9.122 $/m 3 of wastewater, respectively.