One of the bottlenecks often faced in environmental processes is focused on the design of efficient technologies. Thus, the hunt of suitable alternatives is a must to be tackled in order to improve the conventional methods. In this study the applicability of nickel foam as cathode in electro-Fenton's treatment of Poly R-478, a recalcitrant dye, was demonstrated. Linear sweep voltammetry and initial studies show the ability of nickel foam to increase the H2O2 generation during the electro-Fenton treatment, enhancing the removal yields achieved in comparison with other carbonaceous materials. Furthermore, complete mineralization of the pollutant was reached when using Boron Doped Diamond (BDD) as anode. A heterogeneous electro-Fenton process using iron loaded polyacrylamide hydrogels enhance the efficiency of the process with respect to homogeneous electro-Fenton and anodic oxidation technologies. Furthermore, the evaluation of the generated hydroxyl radicals confirms the obtained results. Finally, the reusability of the designed process was evaluated by decolorization of Poly R-478 in successive batches. SEM study of the nickel foam along the successive experiments confirms that no structure changes were detected. Summing up, nickel foam seems to be a suitable cathode material for the electro-Fenton treatment of recalcitrant compounds in continuous mode. (C) 2015 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.