Solar photo-Fenton treatment of chip board production waste water

In a joint project the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia and the German Aerospace Center are developing solar water treatment technologies for industrial applications. Wastewater from chip-board production is difficult to detoxify by standard processes. Different advanced oxidation processes using solar light were tested on this effluent. In opposition to TiO 2 treatment, the application of the photo-Fenton process using a compound parabolic collector (CPC) type solar reactor shows excellent results, with a reduction in the COD higher than 70% with the application of about 800 kJ m −2 of UVA radiation. HPLC analysis shows an efficient degradation of the organic matter present in the effluent (formaldehyde, melamine, urea, wood extractives, lignin and urea/formaldehyde and melamine/formaldehyde resins fragments) prior to their complete disappearance.