Low-Temperature Oxidation of Phenol Adsorbed on Cu5AC1 Catalyst-sorbent

摘要

Removal of toxic organic compounds from dilute aqueous effluents is an important problem in wastewater treatment. Among numerous organic pollutants, phenolic compounds are highly toxic and resistajit to natural biodegradation. Adsorption onto activated carbon (AC) is efficient for the removal of such organic compounds in dilute aqueous solutions. However, economical constraints require the used AC to be regenerable for long-term use, instead of being disposed of or used as a fuel. At present, the most common method for regeneration of the used AC is thermal regeneration at high temperatures (800-850°C), which is high cost and requires further treatment for the desorbed organic pollutants. Low-temperature catalytic oxidation of adsorbed organic pollutants on AC was reported to be advantageous because it avoids the problems associated with the thermal regeneration. The important features of a AC sorbent suitable for such purpose are: (1) high adsorption capacities for organic pollutants; (2) high activities for low-temperature oxidation of the adsorbed organic pollutants; and (3) high resistance to self burn-off under oxidation conditions. This paper studies phenol oxidation activities and ignition characteristics of an AC supported copper catalyst-sorbent in a TG/MS system through temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). The catalyst-sorbent was made from a granular AC1 supported with 5 wt% Cu and is named Cu5AC1.