ORGANICS REMOVAL FROM ALUMINA INDUSTRIAL LIQUOR: APPLICATION OF THE CATALYTIC WET OXIDATION PROCESS TO NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC BAYER LIQUORS
Bhargava, S., Akolekar, D.B., Tardio, J. and Eyer, S.
The removal of organic compounds from alumina industrial liquor was studied using the catalytic wet oxidation process at low temperature and conditions favourable to the industry. In the catalytic wet oxidation of organics in the Bayer liquor, high molecular weight organics were decomposed to low molecular weight organics, carbon dioxide and water. The catalytic wet oxidation process exhibited significant oxidation of organics present in the liquor.
Using the synthetic Bayer liquor, the wet oxidation of known model organic compounds was studied. The low temperature wet oxidation of low molecular weight organic compounds (sodium formate, acetate, malonate, and other organics) has been investigated in highly alkaline synthetic Bayer liquor. Only two of the compounds, sodium formate and sodium malonate, underwent appreciable wet oxidation in isolation under the reaction conditions such as temperature: 165ºC, Oxygen pressure: 500 kPa, concentration of sodium hydroxide 4.4–7.0 M NaOH, reaction period: 2 h.