Multi‑response central composite design of the mineralization and removal of aniline by subcritical water oxidation method

Aniline is used by many industrial organizations and is released into the environment in high amounts and pollutes the water. Due to the damages to human health, there is a need for efective and environmentally friendly methods to remove this compound from the water. The aim of this work is to mineralize and remove aniline by investigating total organic carbon removal and aniline removal, respectively, via using the eco-friendly method, subcritical water oxidation and green oxidizing agent, H2O2. The efect of process variables such as temperature, treatment time and H2O2 concentration were evaluated. Total organic carbon removal of aniline was obtained as 92.73% in 80 min of treatment time and in the presence of 60 mM of H2O2 at 403 K. 99.21% of aniline removal was achieved based on the UV spectrophotometric analysis at these conditions. The response surface method was used to optimize the performed model and the efect of the above-mentioned parameters. The reliability of the method was provided by ANOVA.