Catalytic Wet Peroxide Oxidation of Phenol: Study of Fe2O3 /Al2O3 systems

C. DI LUCA; F. IVORRA; P. MASSA; R. FENOGLIO

Lyon

Conferencia; 7th International Conference on Environmental Catalysis; 2012

Lyon Ingénierie Projets

Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) have become interesting alternatives for the removal of hazardous chemicals in aqueous solution. Frequently, phenol has been chosen as a target pollutant due to its high toxicity and resistance to traditional detoxification processes.  Different  AOPs  have  been  applied  to  treat wastewaters  containing  phenol,  including  the  classic system discovered by Fenton in the XIX century. However, the application of conventional Fenton reaction is seriously affected by the typical limitations of homogeneous catalysis. A variety of heterogeneous Fenton systems using transition metals supported over different solid materials have been proposed for the Catalytic Wet Peroxide Oxidation (CWPO) reactions.  However, only a few studies dealt with alumina supported systems. Among low-cost materials, the performance of Fe2O3/Al2O3 catalysts has resulted very promising.  So,  we  tested  Fe2O3/Al2O3 pellets  with  low  iron content,  for  the  peroxidation  of  phenol  solutions  at  a moderate reaction temperature (70ºC). A relatively concentrated phenol initial charge (5000 ppm) was selected, which imposes more demanding reaction conditions for the catalyst. The effects of two main process variables were studied: catalyst concentration and oxidant concentration, in order to approach to optimized reaction conditions.