Catalytic wet air oxidation of phenol over active carbon in fixed bed reactor: steady state and periodic operation

Identifier:  TDX:941

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX941

Authors:  Habtu, Nigus Gabbiye

Abstract:
The fast world industrialization and urbanization creates a large number of water pollutants that are toxic and hazardous and in most cases too hard to amend naturally. Phenols are amongst those toxic compounds frequently found in many industrial effluents. A review of the specific literature points out that catalytic wet air oxidation using activated carbon can be a promising solution for the destruction of phenolic pollutants. However, it seems unlikely to achieve stable catalyst in fixed bed reactor under steady state operation due to the slow combustion of activated carbon. Within this context, the present work focus on three main aspects to extend the current state of art of catalytic wet air oxidation: establishing reactor start-up, kinetic measurements and periodic operation of fixed bed reactors. It has been shown that kinetic measurement can be conducted in trickle bed reactor without mass and heat transfer limitations. Most importantly, stable catalyst during catalytic wet air oxidation of phenol over active carbon was achieved in fixed bed reactor through dynamic reactor operation by optimizing periodic parameters.