Toluene Degradation by Thermal Catalytic Oxidation over K-OMS-2 Catalysts

The goal of this research was to synthesize two different catalysts, namely K-OMS-2 and MnOx. The K-OMS-2 was an octahedral manganese complex prepared by hydrothermal method, while manganese oxide (MnOx) was directly synthesized by precipitation method. Both catalysts were employed to decompose toluene, an organic solvent that is widely used in industries. The catalysts were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and N2-physorption. The surface areas of K-OMS-2 and MnOx were 83.50 and 20.04 m2/g, respectively. The precipitation route gave XRD patterns of γ-Mn2O3 structure, and a successful structure of an octahedral molecular sieve manganese oxide was obtained by the hydrothermal method. The toluene degradation was carried out in gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) range of 20,000-60,000 h-1 with toluene concentration of 7,700 ppmv. The higher GHSV over K-OMS-2 gave the lower contact time consequently resulting in the lower %toluene degradation, whereas the best GHSV over γ-Mn2O3 was suitable at 40,000 h-1. The complete oxidation temperature of toluene over K-OMS-2 occurred at 260 °C and was lower than the temperature by γ-Mn2O3 at 300 °C. The higher surface area of K-OMS-2 may not facilitate internal toluene diffusion to active K-OMS-2 sites because molecular toluene (5.6 Å) cannot migrate through its smaller pore diameter (4.6 Å); however, the fully oxidized K-OMS-2 can provide higher average oxidation state (AOS) and higher amount of lattice oxygen assisting toluene degradation compared to γ-Mn2O3. The full factorial design of experiment (DOE) exhibited a strong effect of temperature and catalyst types on toluene removal; in contrast gas hour space velocity (GHSV) exhibited no significant effect on %toluene removal even with increasing GHSV.