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Flameless supercritical water incineration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Author(s) -
Onwudili Jude A.,
Williams Paul T.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.1167
Subject(s) - supercritical fluid , chemistry , phenanthrene , pyrene , naphthalene , environmental chemistry , incineration , combustion , hydrocarbon , anthracene , organic chemistry , waste management , engineering
Among the environmental chemical groups, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) comprise the largest group of carcinogens. Flameless supercritical water incineration is an emerging technology which has attracted attention for the oxidation of organic compounds in environmental samples. The oxidation reactions occur in a aqueous fluid phase under conditions that exceed the critical point of water ( T c =374°C, P c =21.9 MPa). PAH are known to be relatively resistant to combustion. In this paper PAH have been combusted in a supercritical water oxidation batch reactor to determine the combustion processes in relation to such condensed molecular species. The PAH investigated were naphthalene, biphenyl, fluorene, phenanthrene, pyrene and a mixture of all the PAH. The influence of temperature, pressure, sub‐critical and supercritical conditions and reaction time were investigated in relation to the destruction of the PAH. The PAH were reacted in the water phase, adsorbed to solid sand samples and as simulated contaminated soil. It was found that up to 99.9 wt% destruction of the PAH occurred at supercritical conditions. The main gases produced from the degradation of PAH, were CO, CO 2 and H 2 . At sub‐critical temperature and pressure conditions the degradation of the PAH required, longer reaction times or higher concentrations of the oxidant. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.