| Sumario: | Biological and advanced oxidation processes are combined to treat an actual slaughterhouse wastewater (SWW) by a sequence of an anaerobic baffled reactor, an aerobic activated sludge reactor, and a UV/H 2 O 2 photoreactor with recycle in continuous mode at laboratory scale. In the first part of this study, quadratic modeling along with response surface methodology are used for the statistical analysis and optimization of the combined process. The effects of the influent total organic carbon (TOC) concentration, the flow rate, the pH, the inlet H 2 O 2 concentration, and their interaction on the overall treatment efficiency, CH 4 yield, and H 2 O 2 residual in the effluent of the photoreactor are investigated. The models are validated at different operating conditions using experimental data. Maximum TOC and total nitrogen (TN) removals of 91.29 and 86.05%, respectively, maximum CH 4 yield of 55.72%, and minimum H 2 O 2 residual of 1.45% in the photoreactor effluent were found at optimal operating conditions. In the second part of this study, continuous distribution kinetics is applied to establish a mathematical model for the degradation of SWW as a function of time. The agreement between model predictions and experimental values indicates that the proposed model could describe the performance of the combined anaerobic–aerobic–UV/H 2 O 2 processes for the treatment of SWW. In the final part of the study, the optimized combined anaerobic–aerobic–UV/H 2 O 2 processes with recycle were evaluated using a cost-effectiveness analysis to minimize the retention time, the electrical energy consumption, and the overall incurred treatment costs required for the efficient treatment of slaughterhouse wastewater effluents.
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