Total catalytic wet oxidation of phenol and its chlorinated derivates with MnO2/CeO2 catalyst in a slurry

Abstract

In the present work, a synthetic effluent of phenol was treated by means of a total oxidation process-Catalyzed Wet Oxidation (CWO). A mixed oxide of Mn-Ce (7:3), the catalyst, was synthesized by co-precipitation from an aqueous solution of MnCl 2 and CeCl 3 in a basic medium. The mixed oxide, MnO 2 /CeO 2 , was characterized and used in the oxidation of phenol in a slurry reactor in the temperature range of 80-130C and pressure of 2.04-4.76 MPa. A phenol solution containing 2.4-dichlorophenol and 2.4dichlorophenoxyacetic acid was also degraded with good results. A lumped kinetic model, with two parallel reaction steps, fits precisely with the integrated equation and the experimental data. The kinetic parameters obtained are in agreement with the Arrhenius equation. The activation energies were determined to be 38.4 for the total oxidation and 53.4 kJ/mol for the organic acids formed.