Assessment of LED-assisted electro-Fenton reactor for the treatment of winery wastewater

•Novel LED-assisted electro-Fenton reactor based on sequential processes was designed.•The key operational parameters for simulated winery wastewater were optimized.•High removal versus energy consumption was achieved in comparison to conventional process.•The designed reactor using a real winery wastewater was validated.

Winery wastewaters prove to be an environmental issue due to their particular characteristics (high COD and TOC, colour and low pH) as well as their seasonal generation. In this work, a new sequential reactor design, based on photo electro-Fenton technology combined with LED radiation, has been demonstrated as a viable alternative for the treatment of these wastewaters. The optimization of the working parameters led to achieve high colour and TOC removals in simulated effluents with significant initial TOC values. The energy consumption was a key factor in these hybrid processes and it was found that the process carried out in the new designed reactor was a cost effective treatment with around 1 KWh/gTOCremoved. Finally the validation of the designed reactor was successfully performed for the treatment of real winery wastewater.