Decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in a catalytic fluidized-bed reactor

The decomposition of H₂O₂ by a novel supported γ-FeOOH catalyst was performed in a continuous fluidized-bed reactor. This catalyst has been successfully used in the treatment of organic contaminants with H₂O₂ in our previous work. In this study, we attempted to determine the effects of pH, H₂O₂ concentration, and catalyst concentration on the decomposition of H₂O₂. An approach, we regarded this reactor as a continuous-flow stirred-tank reactor, was applied to investigate the kinetic behavior. At low H₂O₂ concentration, the decomposition rate of H₂O₂ was found to be proportional to both H₂O₂ and catalyst concentrations. At high H₂O₂ concentration, however, the rate decreased with the increasing H₂O₂ concentration. This can be explained by the substrate inhibition model. The large difference in the observed first-order rate constants under various pH values was also modeled. The model agreed well with the experimental results.