Potassium persulfate promoted catalytic wet oxidation of fulvic acid as a model organic compound in landfill leachate with activated carbon

Fulvic acid (FA) is known to be present at high concentration in leachates from “mature” and “old” landfills. In this work, the catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of FA as a model of refractory organics of stabilized leachate was studied with activated carbon (AC) as catalyst and potassium persulfate (K2S2O8) as promoter. The effect of temperature and the amount of AC and K2S2O8 on the degradation of FA were investigated. Results revealed that FA could be efficiently degraded in the K2S2O8/AC system. At 150 °C and 0.5 MPa oxygen pressure, almost complete FA conversion and 77.8% COD removal were achieved after 4 h of treatment. The biodegradability of BOD5/COD ratio increased from 0.13 of raw FA solution to 0.95 after CWAO. AC exhibited good stability in the catalytic wet oxidation of FA. When AC was used for the fourth time, the FA conversion was still over 60%. Additionally, radical mechanism was studied and three radical scavengers (methanol, tert-butyl alcohol, sodium bromide) were used to determine the kind of major active species taking part in the degradation of FA. It was assumed that hydroxyl radical (OH) and sulfate radical (SO4-) played a major role in the FA degradation.

► A promising route for degradation of fulvic acid is reported.
► Fulvic acid and its COD are efficiently removed.
► Biodegradability of fulvic acid is greatly increased.
► Activated carbon exhibits good stability in the system.
► Radical mechanism is studied in detail.