Textile industry consumes considerable amounts of water during various processes such as dyeing. The existence of color and aromatic rings in the form of aromatic amines in textile wastewater is a very important problem. In this paper, photocatalytic decolorization and aromatic ring degradation of Direct Red 80 in a fixed bed photocatalytic reactor, utilizing a very simple analytical method, direct UV-vis spectrophotometric detection, has been investigated. Photocatalytic decolorization and aromatic ring degradation processes performed using a 51 solution containing Direct Red 80. The initial concentration of Direct Red 80 was 50 mg 1(-1). The radiation source was two 15 W UV-C lamps. A batch mode immersion photocatalytic reactor was utilized. The effect of variables such as pH and H2O2 concentration were studied. Bench scale simulated colored textile wastewater was completely decolorized in a relatively short time after UV irradiation with a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide. The lack of any absorbance in the UV-vis spectra was indicative of the complete aromatic ring degradation. Kinetics analysis indicates that the dye photocatalytic decolorization rates can usually be approximated pseudo-first-order model. UV/TiO2/H2O2 process proved capable of the complete degradation of the Direct Red 80. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.