m-Cresol-containing wastewater is treated by using artificial intelligence assisted Fenton oxidation method.The impacts of Fe2+mass concentration,H2O2 volume fraction,initial pH,reaction time,and initial m-cresol mass fraction on m-cresol degradation are explored.The best scheme for degradation of M-cresol is determined by using response surface methodology(RSM)and artificial neural networks(ANN),respectively while the relationship with TOC removal rate is fitted to optimize and compare.The optimal conditions obtained by the ANN model combined with an enumerative method are as follows:Fe2+mass concentration is 0.66 g·L-1,H2O2 volume fraction is 6.00 mL·L-1,initial pH is 3,reaction time is 23.37 min,and the initial mass fraction of m-cresol is 50 μg·g-1.Under these conditions,the removal rate of TOC is 48.14%,that is 32.16%under the conditions obtained via the response surface method.