Catalytic wet air oxidation of aqueous solution of phenol over Pt/CNF catalyst

The catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of phenol has been studied in trickled bed reactor using 2 wt.% platinum supported on carbon nanofibers (Pt/CNF) as catalyst. The catalyst was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation, and characterized by N2 adsorption, XRD and TEM. The operational variables studied and their range were: total air pressure, temperature, catalyst load, air and liquid flow rates, and were varied from 1.0 to 3.0 MPa, 413 to 453 K, 0.5-2 g cat, 150-400 mL/min of air and 0.5-2 mL/min of phenol solution, respectively. The initial phenol concentration was 1g/L. After 3h of reaction, phenol conversions were higher than 90% in most of cases, and total organic carbon (TOC) conversions ranged from 30 to 93%. A high stability of the catalyst was also demonstrated. A Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model was used to fit experimental data, obtaining satisfactory results. It was demonstrated that Pt/CNF is an efficient catalyst for the CWAO of phenol. High phenol conversion and TOC removal can be reached over this catalyst at mild reaction temperature (433 K) and moderate pressure (2.0 MPa).