Application of Fenton’s Oxidation in the Remediation of Surface Water From River Yedzaram Contaminated With Diesel

Surface water contamination is a significant problem for municipal authorities. It can lead to pollution on a large scale and be a cause of major illness in humans. The remediation of surface water from river Yedzaram contaminated with diesel using Fenton’s oxidation was studied at ambient temperature for effectiveness at some optimum conditions. Results obtained from optimization studies for the Fenton’s oxidation employed for the study were 20000 mg/L H2O2 and 350 mg/L FeSO4 at ambient temperature with pH of samples adjusted to 3.0. The result obtained at end of the chemical remediation studies shows that the Fenton’s oxidation was found to be spontaneous with the reaction being exothermic which followed by a second order kinetics. Around 43.9% of the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) as diesel removal efficiency was achieved after about 105 minutes. The kinetics of the reaction has proven too and followed the pseudo-first order kinetics with the rate constant of 3x102 mol-1 cm3min-1 which is similar to that of Kerosine.