Abstract
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from anthropogenic sources pose direct and indirect hazards to both atmospheric environment and human health due to their contribution to the formation of photochemical smog and potential toxicity including carcinogenicity. Therefore, to abate VOCs emission, the catalytic oxidation process has been extensively studied in laboratories and widely applied in various industries. This report is mainly focused on the benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) with additional discussion about chlorinated VOCs. This review covers the recent developments in catalytic combustion of VOCs over noble metal catalysts, nonnoble metal catalysts, perovskite catalysts, spinel catalysts, and dual functional adsorbent-catalysts. In addition, the effects of supports, coke formation, and water effects have also been discussed. To develop efficient and cost-effective catalysts for VOCs removal, further research in catalytic oxidation might need to be carried out to strengthen the understanding of catalytic mechanisms involved.
Highlights
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) refer to those organic chemicals that reach their boiling point at temperature lower than 250∘C under the pressure of 101.3 kPa [1]
Most of the recent Chinese studies on air quality are focusing on this class of compounds due to their high concentration at ground level partially leading to the recurrent haze episodes [9]; benzene is group I carcinogenic pollutant classified by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and ethylbenzene is a suspected group IIB carcinogenic compound, while both toluene and xylenes are IARC group III neurotoxins [10]
A very recent review published by Aranzabal et al in 2014 [24] was concentrated only on the catalytic oxidation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds, which discussed in detail catalyst selectivity, byproducts formation, the possible causes of deactivation, and so forth
Summary
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) refer to those organic chemicals that reach their boiling point at temperature lower than 250∘C under the pressure of 101.3 kPa [1]. Among the VOCs of anthropogenic origin, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m, p, and o-xylenes (BTEX) represent a high percentage of the total emissions [8] These compounds can be found during both indoor and outdoor atmospheric environment, which could be from various emission sources [8]. It is known that flue gases from various industrial processes are a major anthropogenic emission source of BTEX [11,12,13] To remove these pollutants from flue gases different technologies have been developed and utilized. A very recent review published by Aranzabal et al in 2014 [24] was concentrated only on the catalytic oxidation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds, which discussed in detail catalyst selectivity, byproducts formation, the possible causes of deactivation, and so forth. Though VOCs are a very broad group of organic pollutants concerning to atmospheric environment, our report is to concentrate on the typical VOCs including BTEX and some chlorinated VOCs in flue gas
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
