KINETICS OF SUBCRITICAL PHENOL OXIDATION INITIATED BY BENZOYL PEROXIDE

Subcritical thermal decomposition of phenol is investigated in the present work. Benzoyl peroxide (BPO) is employed as an initiator for generating the free radicals essential for initiating the phenol oxidation process. The BPO-initiated phenol oxidation is found to follow a first-order at a reaction temperature lower than 175-degrees-C and sufficiently high phenol concentration. At a higher temperature and/or at a low phenol concentration, deviation from the first-order kinetics is observed. Addition of benzoyl peroxide up to 50 mug/m3 is found to be able to speed up the oxidation process by as much as 30%. It is also observed that to achieve a good reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the aqueous solution, operation of the oxidation process at as high temperature above 325-degrees-C is necessary.