Catalyst support materials for prominent mineralization of bisphenol A in catalytic ozonation process

Degradation of aqueous solution of bisphenol A (BPA) has been investigated through non-catalytic and catalytic ozonation treatments conducted in a semi-batch reactor. Non-catalytic ozonation resulted in complete degradation of aqueous BPA in less than 3 min but did not completely convert the reaction intermediates of BPA ozonation into CO2 and H2O. The main goal of this study was to find an effective heterogeneous catalyst to increase the extent of BPA mineralization at different pH conditions. In this way, the most promising catalyst carrier was γ-Al2O3; at pH = 8.0, 68 % of total organic carbon (TOC) was removed in the period of 75 min, out of which 42 % was attributed to mineralization. Finally, 3.0 wt.% Ru/γ-Al2O3 catalyst exhibited over 82 % of TOC removal after 240 min of ozonation at pH = 5.9, of which 56 % was mineralized.