Abatement of phenolic mixtures by catalytic wet oxidation enhanced by Fenton's pretreatment: Effect of H2O2 dosage and temperature

Catalytic wet oxidation (CWO) of a phenolic mixture containing phenol, o-cresol and p-cresol (500 mg/L on each pollutant) has been carried out using a commercial activated carbon (AC) as catalyst, placed in a continuous three-phase reactor. Total pressure was 16 bar and temperature was 127 °C. Pollutant conversion, mineralization, intermediate distribution, and toxicity were measured at the reactor outlet. Under these conditions no detoxification of the inlet effluent was found even at the highest catalyst weight (W) to liquid flow rate (QL) ratio used. On the other hand, some Fenton Runs (FR) have been carried out in a batch way using the same phenolic aqueous mixture previously cited. The concentration of Fe2+ was set to 10 mg/L. The influence of the H2O2 amount (between 10 and 100% of the stoichiometric dose) and temperature (30, 50, and 70 °C) on phenols conversion, mineralization, and detoxification have been analyzed. Phenols conversion was near unity at low hydrogen peroxide dosage but mineralization and detoxification achieved an asymptotic value at each temperature conditions. The integration of Fenton reagent as pretreatment of the CWO process remarkably improves the efficiency of the CWO reactor and allows to obtain detoxified effluents at mild temperature conditions and relatively low W/QL values. For a given phenolic mixture a temperature range of 30-50 °C in the Fenton pretreatment with a H2O2 dosage between 20 and 40% of the stoichiometric amount required can be proposed.