The removal of dye from textile industry wastewater using a photo-Fenton like catalyst system was investigated wherein the removal efficiency of phenol and chemical oxygen demand (COD) was studied by varying various parameters of pH (3–11), reaction time (1–50 min), activated Carbon/CoFe₂O₄ (AC/CFO) nanocomposite dosage (0.1–0.9 g/L), and persulfate amount (1–9 mM/L). The highest removal rates of reactive red 198 and COD were found to be 100% and 98%, respectively, for real wastewater under the optimal conditions of pH = 6.5, AC/CFO nanocomposite dosage (0.3 g/L), reaction time, 25 min, and persulfate dose of 5 mM/L up on constant UV light irradiation (30 W) at ambient room temperature. The result showed that this system is a viable and highly efficient remediation protocol relative to other advanced oxidation processes; inexpensive nature, the ease of operation, use of earth-abundant materials, and reusability for removal of organic pollutants being the salient attributes.

Phenol is classified as priority pollutant. Phenol and its derivatives are stable in water, environmental contamination, and health concerns that are used as raw material in many chemical industries. This study investigated the removal of phenol by electro-H2O2/UV system. The response surface methodology (RSM) using central composite design (CCD) was used to modeling and optimization of experimental parameters such as pH, contact time, initial concentration of phenol, concentration of hydrogen peroxide, and current density. The obtained results demonstrated that the efficiency of the electro-H2O2/UV system was maximum (>99%) under the optimal conditions for the phenol removal from aqueous solutions, 2 mM of hydrogen peroxide concentration, 50 mg/L of initial phenol concentration, pH of 5, 10 mA/cm2 of current density, reaction time of 25 min and 2.1 kW h/m3 of energy consumption. Therefore, the electro-H2O2/UV system is an efficient method for the removal of organic compounds from industrial wastewater.