Catalytic Degradation of CH2O and C6H5CH2OH in Wastewaters S.T
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Water Research 36 (2002) 2297–2303 Catalytic degradation of CH2O and C6H5CH2OH in wastewaters S.T. Christoskova*, M. Stoyanova Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Plovdiv, 24 Tzar Assen St, 40000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria Received 15 March 2001; received in revised form 8 August 2001; accepted 1 October 2001 Abstract The heterogeneous oxidation of benzyl alcohol and formaldehyde in aqueous medium has been investigated. The catalytic oxidation of these compounds is carried out in the presence of Ni-oxide system at ambient temperature. The results show that under studied conditions, a 90% conversion of CH2OtoCO2 and a complete oxidation of C6H5CH2OH to C6H5COOH is achieved. Addition of H2SO4 to adjust pH to 2 further precipitates benzoic acid. The À3 precipitate is filtered and the resulting filtrate is free of organic substances (COD is below 10 mg O2 dm ). Based on the results obtained, a technology for purification of wastewaters containing benzyl alcohol as well as a catalytic method for degradation of CH2O in aqueous solutions have been developed. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Catalytic oxidation; Ni-oxide system; Detoxification of organic substances; Benzyl alcohol; Benzoic acid; Formaldehyde 1. Introduction provide complete mineralization of organic substances while being environmental friendly. The degradation of organic pollutants, such as Transient reaction at 273 and 300 K has been used to formaldehyde, benzaldehyde and benzyl alcohol, has study the initial steps in the photocatalytic oxidation of attracted considerable attention due to the worldwide benzyl alcohol and benzaldehyde absorbed on a thin concern about the toxicity of these compounds. Waste- film of TiO2 catalyst by O2 [3]. It was found that, in the waters from different industries (pharmacy, perfumery course of oxidation reaction benzyl alcohol was first and cosmetics, organic synthesis, manufacture of resin photocatalytically oxidized to benzaldehyde and then to and colours, etc.) contain formaldehyde and benzyl CO2 and H2O. alcohol in wide concentration rangesFfrom 0.5 to Selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde 10 g dmÀ3 [1]. The treatment of hazardous wastewaters, was carried out over pumice-supported bimetallic and containing these pollutants in an environmentally monometallic Pd and Ag catalysts. Preliminary kinetic acceptable manner and at a reasonable cost is a topic studies were performed at 333 K in autoclave, at a of great universal importance. The biological processes pressure of 2 atm in pure oxygen. Under these condi- which are preferably applied to treat wastewaters tions, small amounts of benzoic acid were detected [4]. containing organic compounds do not always give Bessona and Gallezot [5] have studied the oxidation of satisfactory results, since many organic substances are aldehydes, alcohols or carbohydrate derivatives in resistant to biological treatment [2]. Low-temperature aqueous medium with air in the presence of palladium aqueous-phase catalytic oxidation is a promising alter- and platinum catalysts under mild conditions (293– native for the detoxification of wastewaters containing 353 K and atmospheric pressure). toxic substances. Catalytic oxidation reactions could The present investigation aims at studying the possible development of an efficient catalytic method *Corresponding author. Tel.: +359-32-261-534. for the purification of wastewaters containing organic E-mail address: [email protected] (S.T. Christoskova). compounds using a low-temperature oxide catalyst. 0043-1354/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0043-1354(01)00458-4 2298 S.T. Christoskova, M. Stoyanova / Water Research 36 (2002) 2297–2303 2. Experimental 2.3. Analytical methods 2.1. Catalyst The changes in the concentrations of benzyl alcohol and its oxidation productsFintermediate benzaldehyde, A Ni-oxide system was used as a catalyst. It was and the final oxidation product benzoic acid, were synthesized, according to the procedure described in monitored by UV–VISspectroscopy and thin layer detail by Christoskova et al. [6]. The catalyst was chromatography. The corresponding absorbance max- characterized by means of IR, XPS, ESR, X-ray ima of these compounds are at 205, 248, and 225 nm, diffraction and chemical analyses. Analytical data respectively. Absorbance was measured with a Perkin obtained gave us reasons to conclude that under the Elmer Lambda-15 UV–VISspectrophotometer. applied conditions of synthesis of Ni-oxide with a high Thin layer chromatographic analysis was carried out active oxygen content (O*B8%), high degree of using standard chromatographic plates with silica gel 60 oxidation and octahedral coordination of the metal F264 support (E. Merck) and trichloromethane as eluent. ions, and weak surface Ni–O bonds was obtained. The The spots corresponding to benzyl alcohol, benzalde- following formula of the oxide was suggested: Nix hyde and benzoic acid were developed with UV light. (OH)yOz*mH2O, the metal cations on the catalyst The COD was determined according to standard surface being mainly in their highest oxidation state, i.e. procedure [7]. +4. Due to these attractive properties, a high catalytic The initial and current concentrations of formalde- activity of the catalyst was expected in reactions of hyde were checked by gas chromatography. GC analysis complete oxidation, carried out at low temperature. was performed with a Carlo Erba Fractovap 2400 T gas chromatograph equipped with an electrolytic conduc- 2.2. Treatment conditions tivity detector. The operating parameters were as follows: temperature of the detector 473 K, temperature The heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of benzyl of the column (filled with 20% polyethyleneglycol on alcohol and formaldehyde in aqueous solutions was Chromosorb W)F383 K, carrier gasFhydrogen, vo- carried out in a thermostated reactor under continuous lume of the analysed sample 2 ml. The retention times of stirring, thus providing an equal level of all parameters CO2,CH2O, and HCOOH under the studied conditions describing the state of the system (temperature, con- were 30, 70, and 1624 s, respectively. The concentrations centration, pH). The experimental runs were carried out of CH2O, CO2 and HCOOH were calculated from the as follows: the substrate solution was saturated with corresponding peak area, measured by means of an oxygen by bubbling air under atmospheric pressure for integrator. 30 min prior to adding the catalyst. Then the desired The IR spectra of the fresh and used catalyst as well as amount of catalyst (with particle size in the range the spectra of benzoic acid (product resulting in the 0.6–1.0 nm) was suspended in the solution. The applica- heterogeneous oxidation of benzyl alcohol and commer- tion of the catalyst in the form of a suspension is more cially available reagent from E. Merck) were recorded efficient because it leads to an increase in the catalyst with an FTIR-1750 Perkin Elmer spectrophotometer in surface accessible to the reaction. The air was con- KBr tablets. tinuously bubbled during the runs, thus maintaining a The efficiency of the oxidation of benzyl alcohol and constant steady-state concentration of dissolved oxygen. formaldehyde with the participation of Ni-oxide system After exhausting the active oxygen of the catalyst, the under different conditions was evaluated through both latter was regenerated with NaOCl. the rate constant (k; minÀ1) and the overall degree of The catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde was carried conversion (a; %). The latter was calculated according out using 1 M solution of CH2O at pH 7.0, temperature to the equation 298 K and catalyst concentration of 0.5 or 2.0 g dmÀ3. C0 À C The investigations concerning oxidation of benzyl a ¼ 100; C alcohol were carried out with both model solutions 0 À3 À3 containing 20 g dm benzyl alcohol and wastewaters where C0 is the initial substrate concentration, mg dm , from ‘‘Hemus’’ plant, Bourgas, Bulgaria, containing C is the current substrate concentration, mg dmÀ3. from 15 to 20 g dmÀ3 benzyl alcohol. After complete The rate constant of the reaction of benzyl alcohol conversion of benzyl alcohol into benzoic acid, the oxidation was estimated according to the first-order catalyst is filtered and 2 M H2SO4 was added to the kinetic equation filtrate and pH adjusted to 2.0. At this pH, white crystals 1 AN À A0 of benzoic acid were precipitated. After separation of the k ¼ ln ; t A À A crystals (by filtration) the liquid was neutralized with N t NaOH. The resulting solution is free of organic where A0; At; AN are the absorbances (determined from À1 compounds and COD is below 10 mg O2 l . the recorded UV spectra) of benzoic acid at the S.T. Christoskova, M. Stoyanova / Water Research 36 (2002) 2297–2303 2299 beginning of the reaction (initial absorbance), at a fixed HCOOH produced in complete conversion of CH2O moment of the reaction and at complete conversion of into HCOOH under identical experimental conditions. benzyl alcohol into benzoic acid, respectively. It was established that a complete oxidation of HCOOH À1 The activation energy (Ea; kJ mol ) was calculated into CO2 was achieved. These results gave us reasons to from the rate constant vs. temperature plot according to suggest that the catalytic oxidation of CH2O proceeds the Arrhenius equation. according to a consecutive scheme: k1 k2 CH2O - HCOOH - CO2: 3. Results and discussion HCOOH was the only detected intermediate and its 3.1. Catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde measured concentration in the course of the oxidation reaction was quite low. This is a reason to suggest that The change in formaldehyde concentration in the the rate of consumption of HCOOH is higher than the course of oxidation is illustrated by gas chromatograms rate of its formation, i.e. the rate constant k2 has a represented in Fig. 1. The results of GC analysis show higher value than k1: that a high degree of conversion of CH2OtoCO2 and The results of kinetic investigations are illustrated in B H2O is achieved (a 90%). The presence of HCOOH as Figs.