STUDIES ON THE POTENTIAL OF COAL FLY-ASH AS A HETEROGENEOUS CATALYST IN OXIDATION OF AQUEOUS SODIUM SULFIDE SOLUTIONS WITH HYDROGEN-PEROXIDE

The potential of fly ash procured form coal-fired thermal power plants was studied as a heterogeneous catalyst in the oxidation of aqueous s odium sulfide solutions with hydrogen peroxide in the temperature rang e of 303-323 K. The effects of various parameters (source of fly ash, fly ash loading, initial concentrations of sodium sulfide and hydrogen peroxide, electrolyte and deactivation of catalytic effect of fly ash ) were studied. For an initial sodium sulfide and hydrogen peroxide co ncentration of 26.98 x 10(-2) kmol m(-3) and 24.28 x 10(-2) kmol m(-3) respectively, only 4% (w/v) fly ash loading intensified the rate of o xidation by a factor of 4.52 over that without fly ash at 303 K. The d eactivation of the catalytic effect of fly ash was found to be less th an 20% even after six repeated uses. The kinetics of aqueous phase dec omposition of hydrogen peroxide was also studied in the presence of ay ash in alkaline medium.