A novel vertical-flow electro-Fenton reactor for organic wastewater treatment

•A vertical flow electro-Fenton reactor for organic pollutant efficient degradation was described.•The effect of key parameters on pollutants degradation and mineralization efficiency was studied.•The degradation performance was more efficient than that in traditional parallel flow reactor.•The dependence of pollutant removal and energy consumption with cell numbers were investigated.

Degradation of organic pollutants using electro-Fenton has received great attentions in recent years, however, less efforts have been paid to sound reactor exploration. This study presented a novel vertical-flow electro-Fenton reactor, composing of 10 cell compartments using PbO2 anode and modified graphite felt mesh cathode, which was found to be more complete and efficient in organic pollutants degradation when comparing with the traditional parallel-flow reactor, using tartrazine as the model pollutant. Under the optimal conditions of pH 3, voltage 4.0 V, flow rate 40 mL/min, Fe2+ 0.4 mmol/L and aeration rate 80 mL/min, the tartrazine of initial concentration of 100 mg/L could reach near 100% removal and the TOC removal efficiency was 61.64%. The dependence of pollutant removal and energy consumption with the cell numbers were investigated, which would help to design vertical-flow electro-Fenton reactor for practical application.