The catalytic incineration of trichloroethylene over a γ-alumina supported manganese oxide catalyst

TCE decomposition over a Mn₂O₃/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst in a fixed bed reactor was conducted in this study. Preliminarily, three catalysts including Mn₂O₃/γ-Al₂O₃, NiO/γ-Al₂O₃, and Pt/γ-Al₂O₃ were used to incinerate TCE and the results show that the Mn₂O₃/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst has the best performance. The effects of operating parameters, such as inlet temperature, space velocity, TCE inlet concentration, and oxygen concentration on the catalytic incineration of TCE over the Mn₂O₃/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst were then performed. The results show that conversion of TCE increases as inlet temperature and oxygen concentration increase, and decreases with the increases of TCE concentration and space velocity. The activity of the catalyst decreases significantly while TCE incineration is operated under a low temperature, 365°C. However, the activity of the catalyst does not change much while the operating temperature is as high as 500°C. The catalysts were characterized by the surface and pore size analysis, XRD, XPS, EDS, and SEM before and after the tests. The results show that the catalytic crystal is Mn₂O₃, the catalytic deactivation is not due to carbonaceous material, and the chlorine element is adsorbed on the surface of catalysts.