Due to their industrial relevance, phenolic compounds (PC) are amongst the most commonrnorganic pollutants found in many industrial wastewater effluents. The potential detrimentalrnhealth and environmental impacts of PC necessitate their removal from wastewater to meetrnregulatory discharge standards in order to ensure meeting sustainable development goals.rnSearching for low cost, accessible, simple implementation and environmentally friendlyrncatalyst has been one of the concerns of researchers in recent years. Therefore, the aim ofrnthis study was to investigate the efficient phenol removal from a synthetic aqueous solutionrnusing bentonite supported iron catalyst. Heterogeneous Fenton process was performed tornevaluate the performance of the prepared catalyst and the effect of hydrogen peroxidernconcentration, reaction time, catalyst dosage and pH of solution on the removal process arerninvestigated. The synthesized catalyst has then characterized the pH of zero points of therncharge and bulk density was determined, FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD),rnAtomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) analysis was performed. Catalyst selection wasrnoptimized using the D-optimal experimental design by varying the ratio of bentonite to ironrnand the temperature of calcination. The result revealed that the iron to bentonite ratio ofrn1:5 and calcination temperature of 493Â°C has a high ability to remove the phenolicrncompound from the aqueous solution. The efficiency of phenol removal by bentoniternsupport iron catalyst was evaluated in a batch system. Different parameters such asrnhydrogen peroxide concentration (2000, 4000, and 6000 mg/L), contact time (60, 90 andrn120 min), catalyst dosage (1000, 1500 and 2000 mg/L) and pH (3, 3.5 and 4) were studied. rnThe experimental results were analyzed. The optimal mineralization reaction processrnconditions for phenol removal were maximized at hydrogen peroxide concentration 4137rnmg/L, reaction time 85.5 min, catalyst dosage 1445 mg/L and pH. 3.45 with 98.64%rnremoval efficiency of phenol was obtained. The results of this study revealed that bentoniternsupport iron catalyst has the suitable potential for removing phenol from aqueous solutionsrnand hence a reduction of TOC by the application of heterogeneous Fenton process.