Removal of ammonia solutions used in catalytic wet oxidation processes

Ammonia (NH3) is an important product used in the chemical industry, and is common place in industrial wastewater. Industrial wastewater containing ammonia is generally either toxic or has concentrations or temperatures such that direct biological treatment is unfeasible. This investigation used aqueous solutions containing more of ammonia for catalytic liquid-phase oxidation in a trickle-bed reactor (TBR) based on Cu/La/Ce composite catalysts, prepared by co-precipitation of Cu(NO3)2, La(NO3)2, and Ce(NO3)3 at 7:2:1 molar concentrations. The experimental results indicated that the ammonia conversion of the wet oxidation in the presence of the Cu/La/Ce composite catalysts was determined by the Cu/La/Ce catalyst. Minimal ammonia was removed from the solution by the wet oxidation in the absence of any catalyst, while approximately 91% ammonia removal was achieved by wet oxidation over the Cu/La/Ce catalyst at 230 °C with oxygen partial pressure of 2.0 MPa. Furthermore, the effluent streams were conducted at a liquid hourly space velocity of under 9 h−1 in the wet catalytic processes, and a reaction pathway was found linking the oxidizing ammonia to nitric oxide, nitrogen and water. The solution contained by-products, including nitrates and nitrites. Nitrite selectivity was minimized and ammonia removal maximized when the feed ammonia solution had a pH of around 12.0.