Aniline degradation was investigated using a cylindrical reactor with IrO2/RuO2 coated titanium metal anodes and stainless steel cathodes. A systematic experimental design was used as an initial screening process to determine effect of parameters (Fe2+, H2O2, pH and current) on aniline and COD removals. Results show that Fe2+, H2O2 and pH were the main factors affecting on the process performance. The Box-Behnken design was used to specify the optimum conditions from 16 experimental data. The optimized conditions for aniline and COD removals were 1.79 mM, 72 mM and 2 for Fe2+, H2O2, and pH, respectively. Under these conditions, aniline and COD removals were estimated to be 100 and 57%, respectively. The experiment performed under these optimum conditions provided the data which agreed well with these estimations. In addition, the stepwise or continuous addition of H2O2 was more effective than the addition of H2O2 in a single step. Furthermore, the delay in electrical current supply for electro-Fenton process provides a possibility in reducing power consumption while maintaining the system performance.
