Detoxification of organic waste liquids by catalytic hydrogenation

Abstract

Catalytic hydrogenation is proposed here as a possible alternative to thermal incineration for the disposal of hazardous organic waste liquids. The validity of this proposal depends on the fact that the toxicity of organic liquid wastes is caused mainly by compounds containing heteroatoms in their chemical structure. Hydroprocessing, while converting these heteroatoms into easily removable inorganics, also produces non-toxic recyclable organic chemicals. The paper analyzes in detail, on the basis of the available results reported in the literature, both the chemistry and the chemical kinetics of hydrotreating of the most representative heteroatom-containing compounds. It thus provides the basic tools for the design of future detoxification plants based on hydroprocessing. Both the kinetic analysis reported here and, what is more important, the concrete realization of the proposed detoxification method are made possible by the fact that hydroprocessing is a well known technology in the petroleum and petrochemical industries.