Application of Ferrocene in the Treatment of Winery Wastewater in a Heterogeneous Photo-Fenton Process

: Recent studies in the literature showed successful applications of nanomaterial precursor ferrocene (Fc) as a catalyst in heterogeneous photo-Fenton, however, ferrocene was never used for the treatment of winery wastewater (WW). Therefore, the aim of this work is (1) characterize Fc by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), (2) optimize heterogeneous photo-Fenton in WW treatment, (3) study the kinetic rate and regeneration of Fc. The FTIR analysis confirms the presence of Fe 2+ in its composition and SEM images showed that Fc is a porous compound. Under the best operational conditions, as follows: [Fc] = 0.50 g/L, [H 2 O 2 ] = 194 mM, pH = 3.0, agitation = 350 rpm, T = 298 K, radiation UV-C, t = 240 min, it was achieved a significant TOC removal (82.7%). The results showed that the Fc catalyst decreased its stability along 3 consecutive cycling processes with the TOC removals decreasing from 82.7 to 76.2 and 63.9% from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle. Fermi’s non-linear kinetic model was applied, and it was observed a k TOC = 4.77 × 10 −2 min −1 . In conclusion, ferrocene is a suitable compound to perform the treatment of a WW by heterogeneous photo-Fenton process.