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

TCE decomposition over a Mn2O3/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst in a fixed bed reactor was conducted in this study. Preliminarily, three catalysts including Mn2O3/gamma-Al2O3, NiO/gamma-Al2O3, and Pt/gamma-Al2O3 were used to incinerate TCE and the results show that the Mn2O3/gamma-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/gamma-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 degrees C. However, the activity of the catalyst does not change much while the operating temperature is as high as 500 degrees 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.