Kinetic comparison between subcritical and supercritical water oxidation of phenol

Abstract

Wet air oxidation (WAO) and supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) processes have been studied by numerous researchers, proving their effectiveness to treat a wide variety of wastes and presenting the kinetics involved in each case. As a result, a substantial amount of kinetic information describing organic reactions in those environments has been accumulated. In most cases, predictions from kinetics models obtained below and above the critical point of water are completely different. Furthermore, predictions from kinetic expressions obtained in the same range of operating conditions vary considerably. Phenol is a model pollutant that has been the subject of numerous studies both in subcritical and supercritical conditions. In this work, both batch and continuous flow reactors have been used to compare the kinetics obtained for phenol oxidation at subcritical and supercritical conditions. Moreover, most of the rate expressions available in the literature have been compared in order to find the reasons for the discrepancies found.