In this study, the effect of operational parameters of the ozone/hydrogen peroxide (O-3/H2O2) and microwave/persulfate (MW/PS) processes used for dinitrodiazophenol (DDNP) industrial wastewater treatment were investigated, and the degradation characteristics of organic pollutants in wastewater treated by the two processes were compared. It was found that in the O-3/H2O2 process, a certain increase in the O-3 and H2O2 dose and a higher initial pH promoted the removal of organics. In the MW/PS process, increasing the PS dosage and MW power increased the treatment efficiency, but a high ambient pH depressed the removal of organics, and base activation for PS was observed at pH = 13. Under optimum conditions, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color number (CN) removal efficiencies of O-3/H2O2 (O-3 dosage = 18.92 mg/min, H2O2 dose = 18 mM, and initial pH = 10) and MW/PS (PS dose = 8 g/L, MW power = 600 W, and initial pH = 3) were 93.81 and 90.01% (O-3/H2O2) and 82.29 and 77.89% (MW/PS). Ozone was the main oxidant responsible for organic degradation in the O-3/H2O2 process, while the hydroxyl radical ((OH)-O-center dot) played a lesser role. In the MW/PS process, both (OH)-O-center dot and the sulfate radical (SO4 center dot-) contributed to the degradation of organics, while SO4 center dot- was the dominant reactive oxygen species (ROS). In the treatment process, in terms of COD removal, MW/PS had a faster reaction rate due to the introduction of MWs, but its treatment efficiency was inferior to that of the O-3/H2O2 process. In addition, the O-3/H2O2 process performed better in terms of energy saving for reactions of less than 10 min. This study provides a theoretical reference for DDNP industrial wastewater treatment with two different AOPs. (C) 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.