Accepted Article Degradation of organic pollutants by heterogeneous electro- Fenton process using Mn-alginate-composite Short tittle: Mn-alginate-composite as catalyst in electro-Fenton process M. Ángeles Fernández de Dios, Emilio Rosales, María Fernández- Fernández, Marta Pazos, M. Ángeles Sanromán* Department of Chemical Engineering. University of Vigo, Isaac Newton Building, Campus As Lagoas, Marcosende 36310 Vigo, Spain * Corresponding author: Tel.: +34 986 812383; fax: +34 986 812380. E-mail address: sanroman@uvigo.es (M. Ángeles Sanromán) ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The exploration of new technology based on electro-Fenton- like process bears advantageous and unique environmental implications however the scaling up that permits the operation in continuous mode is a decisive stage to be researched. RESULTS: A new metal-organic composite, manganese-alginate (Mn-AB), was synthesized. It was characterized by scanning electron microscope and the results showed that manganese was uniformly distributed on the surface of alginate beads. A comparative study by the decolorization of Reactive Black 5 demonstrated that the best performance was obtained by heterogeneous electro- Fenton using Mn-AB as catalyst. In addition, the operation in four successive batches and continuous mode, showed a high activity and stability of the developed catalyst Mn-AB without operational problems and maintained particle shapes throughout the oxidation process. The ability of Mn-AB catalyst for the degradation of other pollutants (imidacloprid, di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, 4- nitrophenol) was confirmed by identification of several reaction intermediates using LC-MS and GC-MS. This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/jctb.4446 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.