Catalytic wastewater
treatment has rarely been applied to treat
high-ionic-strength wastewater (HISWW) as it contains large amounts
of catalyst poisons (e.g., Cl
–
). This work investigates
the catalytic wet oxidation (CWO) of phenol over a MnCeO
x
catalyst in the presence of high NaCl concentrations
where the combination of MnCeO
x
and NaCl
promoted the CWO of phenol. Specifically, in the presence of NaCl
at a concentration of 200 g L
–1
and MnCeO
x
at a concentration of 1.0 g L
–1
, phenol (initially 1.0 g L
–1
) and total organic
carbon (TOC) conversions were ∼98 and 85%, respectively, after
a 24 h reaction. Conversely, under the same reaction conditions without
NaCl, the catalytic system only achieved phenol and TOC conversions
of ∼41 and 27%, respectively. In situ Attenuated Total Reflection
infrared spectroscopy identified the nature of the strongly adsorbed
carbon deposits with quinone/acid species found on Ce sites and phenolate
species on Mn sites in the single oxides and on MnCeO
x
. The presence of high concentrations of NaCl reduced
the carbon deposition over the catalyst, promoting surface oxidation
of the hydrocarbon and reoxidation of the catalyst, resulting in enhanced
mineralization. Moreover, the used MnCeO
x
catalyst in the salt water system was efficiently regenerated via
a salt water wash under the reaction conditions, showing the great
potential of MnCeO
x
in practical HISWW
treatment.