A B S T R A C TThe solar photocatalytic treatment of phenolic wastewater over TiO 2 suspensions was investigated. The study focused on the effect of various operating parameters on the treatment efficiency including chlorides (50-200 mg/L), sulphates (50-200 mg/L), aeration (pre-aeration, with and without aeration), liquid volume (0.25-1.5 L) and solar light intensity (throughout the year). The presence of chloride and sulphate ions decreased the degradation rate of phenol due to a decrease in the adsorption of the pollutant and act as hydroxyl ion scavengers. It was observed that the phenol removal efficiency was 30, 85 and 77% for pre-aeration, with and without aeration, respectively. The phenol removal efficiency was 99, 94 and 79% and 46% for wastewater volume of 0.25, 0.50, 1.0 and 1.5 L, respectively. It was observed that as the volume of wastewater was increased, the phenol removal was found to decrease. The phenol removal efficiency reached its maximum of 95% at maximum UV light intensity of 32 W/m 2 and the minimum phenol removal efficiency of 59% at minimum UV light intensity of 20 W/m 2 .