Wet oxidation properties of process waste waters of fine chemical and pharmaceutical origin

Wet oxidation was carried out for treating different industrial process wastewaters (PWW’s) of pharmaceutical production, with oxygen in a stainless steel autoclave at 230 and 250 °C and total pressure of 50 bar. Beside non-catalytic, a catalytic reaction was also carried out. The catalyst applied was Ti mesh covered with Ru and Ir oxide. PWW samples were analyzed with respect to their TOC, COD (BOD) content. The tested PWW’s could be oxidized but with rather different conversions. Some effluents were converted with remarkable rate due in some cases to their Fe or Cu ion content, in other cases to the Ti based precious metal oxide catalyst.