CHEMICAL-PROCESSING IN HIGH-PRESSURE AQUEOUS ENVIRONMENTS .4. CONTINUOUS-FLOW REACTOR PROCESS-DEVELOPMENT EXPERIMENTS FOR ORGANICS DESTRUCTION

A high-pressure (20 MPa) and high-temperature (350-degrees-C) liquid w ater processing environment was used to treat various wastewaters and model compounds. Organics were converted to methane and carbon dioxide in the presence of a fixed bed of nickel or ruthenium catalyst. Nitra tes were destroyed by reaction with methanol in the presence of a nick el catalyst. Noncatalytic hydrolysis of carbon tetrachloride and chlor oform was also demonstrated. Three scales of continuous-flow reactors were used in these tests. Extended tests to demonstrate catalyst lifet imes were also performed. Several examples of test results with actual industrial waste streams showed that this process can be effectively used with appropriate catalysts to clean wastewater and recover waste organics as useful fuel gas.