Modeling and kinetics study of Bisphenol A (BPA) degradation over an FeOCl/SiO2 Fenton-like catalyst

Abstract A heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst was used for the oxidation of Bisphenol A (BPA), which is a typical endocrine disruptor. A simple semi-empirical kinetic equation was developed to define the effects of experimental conditions (initial concentration of H 2 O 2 , initial concentration of BPA, temperature and the catalyst loading) on the reaction rate. The plausible pathway of the degradation process was proposed. A pseudo-first-order reaction rate expression with respect to BPA concentration was developed to fit all data for these experiments, and the equation of k obs (observed rate constant) was obtained with the apparent activation energy of 42.2 kJ/mol. In order to reduce the operational cost, the values of parameters (temperature, initial concentration of H 2 O 2 and pH) that optimize the catalytic performance were studied by means of a response surface methodology. Finally, a plausible mechanism was proposed on the basis of kinetics and optimization studies, which illustrates the reaction process and optimization in a microscopic view.