Fertilizer Industry Wastewater Treatment Using Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP)

Darmadi , AdiSalamun1, Athirah1, Aula Chairunnisak1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Syiah Kuala University, Aceh
1*

Abstract

Wastewater of urea fertilizer industry consists of urea and ammonium with the concentration of 1500-10000 ppm and 400-3000 ppm, respectively. High urea content on waste can caused blooming algae which is the rapid population rise of algae in water ecosystem which may cause water organism to be deceased. The mentioned phenomenon caused by the lack of food resources and sunlight as the algae block the sunlight from entering through the water surface. In addition, there is a species of algae that produce toxic which unbeneficial for other organisms including human. Therefore in this research the urea content in wastewater is going to be decreases using oxidation method, that is conventional oxidation using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and advanced oxidation process (AOP) which use a combination of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and Fe2+ called fenton. Preliminary treatment was done under several variation of pH by using 5000 ppm of H2O2 and experimented using H2O2 (3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, and 8000 ppm) and fenton reagent (500 ppm of Fe2+). The result of the experiment shows the optimum pH number of preliminary treatment is 5. The highest urea concentration reduction from 2566.145 ppm to 0 ppm acquired by using fenton reagent (Fe2+500 ppm/ H2O2 8000 ppm). Aside from the reduction of urea concentration, kinetics test of decomposition reaction of urea and ammonium was also established. The result of the experiment shows that the rate of urea decomposition to ammonium is following the first order of reaction kinetics with the reaction constant (k1) value of 0.019. As for the alteration reaction of ammonium to nitrite-nitrate is also following the first order of reaction kinetics with the reaction constant (k2) value of 0.022. The purpose of this research is understanding the urea degradation capability with oxidation method using conventional method as well asthe AOP and also study the degradation reaction kinetics of urea and ammonium. Keywords: Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP), Hydrogen peroxide, Fenton, Fertilizer industry wastewater. *Correspondent author: madi2366@gmail.com