Abstract
The treatment effectiveness of Fenton's reagent using Fe2+ catalyst to reduce chemical oxygen demand (COD) of skim latex serum and the effect of varying concentrations of H2O2 Fe2+ and initial solution pH on its treatment efficiency were investigated. The highest COD removal efficiency obtained was approximately 80% at optimum conditions. The treatment required either nominal or no acidification as initial pH of serum is very close to the optimum pH = 4. COD removal increased upon increasing H2O2 and Fe2+ concentrations. This study shows the suitability of using Fenton's process with H2O2 and FeCl2 as a pre-treatment for skim latex serum. The findings reported here represent a potentially simpler and more cost-effective alternative treatment to other treatment methods since only reagents and not capital-intensive materials (such as membrane) are required.