Kinetic comparison between subcritical and supercritical water oxidation of phenol

Wet air oxidation (WAO) and supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) processes have been studied by numerous researchers, proving their effectiveness to t reat a wide variety of wastes and presenting the kinetics involved in each case. As a result, a substantial amount of kinetic information describing o rganic reactions in those environments has been accumulated. In most cases, predictions from kinetics models obtained below and above the critical poi nt of water are completely different. Furthermore, predictions from kinetic expressions obtained in the same range of operating conditions vary consid erably. Phenol is a model pollutant that has been the subject of numerous studies b oth in subcritical and supercritical conditions. In this work, both batch a nd continuous flow reactors have been used to compare the kinetics obtained for phenol oxidation at subcritical and supercritical conditions. Moreover , most of the rate expressions available in the literature have been compar ed in order to find the reasons for the discrepancies found. (C) 2001 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.