Mineralization of Reactive Black 5 in aqueous solution by basic oxygen furnace slag in the presence of hydrogen peroxide

Basic oxygen furnace slag (BOF slag) is a solid waste arisen from the steel making process. FeO is one of the major components of BOF slag. The FeO-containing property of BOF slag makes it possible to catalyze the Fenton reaction. Reactive Black 5 (RB5) dye is chosen as the target compound in this study. This study has investigated the catalytic performance of BOF slag on the Fenton reaction to decompose RB5 in aqueous solution. A first-order kinetic model with respect to TOC was adopted to explain the mineralization of RB5 by the H2O2/BOF slag process. The experimental results in this study suggested that dosage with 1.49 × 10−4 M min−1 H2O2 and 12.5 g l−1 BOF slag in the solution at pH 2 provided the optimal operation conditions for the mineralization of RB5 yielding a 51.2% treatment efficiency at 100 min reaction time, and complete decoloration can be achieved within 30 min reaction time. The H2O2/Fe2+ ratio was then determined to be 6.06:1.