Acetic acid oxidation in supercritical water

The supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) is an innovative technology for fast,complete and efficient destruction of organics in wastewater.Acetic acid is identified as a refractory or rate-control byproduct of the complex organic compound's oxidation in supercritical water.In order to design or improve existing reactors,the oxidation kinetics of a given oxidation reaction must be well studied.Most researchers focused on kinetic parameters and reaction conditions including temperature,pressure,density,and residence time.Recently there has been increasing attention to heterogeneous catalysts,e.g.manganese dioxide,in SCWO to lower the process temperature and pressure and thereby reduce the processing cost.Latest advances in the research of oxidation kinetics are reviewed.Most researchers fit experimental data by power exponent curve on the basis of plug-flow or batch reactors.The results show that the oxidation kinetics of acetic acid is a first-order reaction equation.