This work is an in-depth study on the application of a catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) process for continuous wastewater treatment....[ Read more ]

This work is an in-depth study on the application of a catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) process for continuous wastewater treatment.

To this end, first various catalysts were prepared and their feasibility for phenol degradation was evaluated in a batch slurry reactor. Activated carbon-based copper (Cu/AC) was found to be the best catalyst. A fully instrumented pilot scale trickle bed reactor (TBR) was then used as a reactor in which oxygen and aqueous phenol were fed co-currently over the Cu/AC catalyst.

This TBR proved to be able to detoxify effectively wastewater containing phenol. A systematic study was conducted to investigate the mass transfer and reaction processes in the TBR. Both gas-to-liquid and liquid-to-solid mass transfer-related parameters were measured and correlated. The reaction kinetics for phenol degradation by both copper salts (homogeneous catalyst) and Cu/AC (heterogeneous catalyst) were examined. Kinetics models for representing the rate data were established and validated.

On the basis of the above results, a comprehensive mathematical model for the TBR was developed. The model was found to be capable of predicting the phenol conversion over a range of operational conditions.