Exploring the pressurized heterogeneous electro-Fenton process and modelling the system

In this research, a bench-scale installation was tested for the heterogeneous electro-Fenton treatment of clofibric acid. The setup consists of a pressurized flow-through electrochemical cell equipped with a catalyst fluidized-bed and aerated with a jet mixer. The novelty of the research is two-fold...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Poza Nogueiras, Verónica, Moratalla, Ángela, Pazos, M., Sáez Jiménez, Cristina, Rodrigo Rodrigo, Manuel Andrés
Format: article
Publication Date:2022
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Repository:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/30037
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10578/30037
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Heterogeneous catalyst
Iron-containing alginate gel beads
Pressure
Jet aerator
Microfluidic flow-through electrochemical reactor
Modelling
Catalizador heterogéneo
Perlas de gel de alginato que contienen hierro
Presión
Aireador de chorro
Reactor electroquímico de flujo continuo de microfluidos
Modelado
Description
Summary:In this research, a bench-scale installation was tested for the heterogeneous electro-Fenton treatment of clofibric acid. The setup consists of a pressurized flow-through electrochemical cell equipped with a catalyst fluidized-bed and aerated with a jet mixer. The novelty of the research is two-fold: the use of the pressurized-jet aerator on an electro-Fenton treatment is tested and it is one of the first studies combining pressure with heterogeneous catalysis in electro-Fenton. Moderate relative pressures, up to 2 bar, were analyzed. Initially, the electrogeneration of hydrogen peroxide was tested, showing that it is remarkably boosted by the application of pressure. Then, the elimination of clofibric acid by means of an electro-Fenton treatment was carried out at 0.12 and 0.25 A, using iron-containing alginate beads as the catalyst. Regardless of the current intensity, the increase from atmospheric pressure to 1 gauge bar boosted the elimination of the pollutant and reduced the specific energy consumption of the electrochemical cell. Specifically, at 0.25 A an abatement higher than 98% was achieved in 8 h at atmospheric pressure while only 1 h was required at 1 bar of gauge pressure. However, a further increase of the pressure to 2 bar did not report a major improvement. Moreover, the effect of pressure on the catalyst was analyzed, concluding that the integrity of the alginate beads was not compromised by pressure. In fact, the iron leaching was very similar at 0, 1 and 2 bar: around 30% after 8 h of treatment. Finally, a mathematical model was developed, using the experimental data to obtain the necessary fitting parameters, which allowed to understand better the behavior of the bench-scale reaction system.