Catalytic Deep Oxidation of Volatile Organic Compound Toluene over CuO/γ-Al 2 O 3 Catalysts at Lower Temperatures

The catalytic activity of transition metals (Cu, Co, Mn, Fe and Ni) supported on for the oxidation of toluene was investigated in the microreactor of fixed-bed type. The catalytic activity of transition metals for the oxidation of toluene turned out to be increasing in the order of Ni catalysts for the oxidation of toluene increased with the increasing loadings of copper, reached the maximum activity at 5% loadings of copper, and decreased with higher loadings of copper in the catalysts. The activity of catalysts for the oxidation of toluene decreased with the increasing calcination temperatures. This might result from the decreasing surface area of catalysts due to the sintering of copper oxide as well as supports. The 5wt% catalysts calcined at for 4 hrs in the air showed the highest activity for the oxidation of toluene. Mutual inhibition was observed for the binary mixture of toluene and xylene. The activity of the easy-to-oxidize toluene was greatly decreased while the difficult-to-oxidize xylene was slightly decreased in the binary mixture of toluene and xylene. It might suggest that the inhibition of toluene and xylene in the binary mixture resulted from the competitive adsorption for the adsorbed oxygen on the catalytic surface.