Catalytic hydrolysis of urea from wastewater using different aluminas by a fixed bed reactor

In order to find an effective method for treating urea wastewater, the experiments on the hydrolysis of urea in wastewater were conducted in a fixed bed reactor with different aluminas (α-Al2O3, γ-Al2O3, and η-Al2O3) as catalysts respectively in contrast with inert ceramic particle. The results indicate that the three alumina catalysts show obvious catalytic activity for urea hydrolysis at 125 °C. The order of activity is η-Al2O3 > γ-Al2O3 > α-Al2O3, and the activity difference increases with increasing temperature. According to the characterization results, surface acidity has little impact on the activity of catalyst. However, it was found that surface basicity of alumina catalyst plays an important role in catalytic hydrolysis of urea, and the activity of catalyst may be also influenced by the basic strength. With η-Al2O3 as catalyst, the urea concentration in wastewater is reduced to 4.96 mg/L at a temperature of 165 °C. Moreover, the η-Al2O3 shows a good stability for urea hydrolysis. The hydrolysis of urea over η-Al2O3 catalyst can evidently reduce the reaction temperature and is promising to replace industrial thermal hydrolysis process.