Industrial Chlorinated Organic Removal with Elimination of Secondary Pollution: A Perspective

Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) emitted from the industrial fabrication process and coatings, pharmacy, and incineration are toxic to the environment and humans. Catalytic combustion can convert CVOCs into CO2, H2O, and HCl/Cl2 at lower temperatures; as such, it is regarded as a promising method at present. However, it still causes serious secondary pollutants because of the involved toxic polychlorinated byproducts that are discharged in the tail gas or deposited on the catalyst surface or reaction device. This is because the individual combustion process cannot completely remove the dissociated chlorine to form HCl; therefore, it can react again with the catalyst or byproducts, resulting in the deactivation of the catalyst and the formation and accumulation of polychlorinated byproducts, including dioxin. The industrial catalytic hydro-dechlorination (HDC) process is more concerned with formation of HCl and acquisition of desired products, which is expected to achieve a possible result of complete elimination of industrial CVOC gas without secondary byproduct pollution via combination of the combustion process and HDC process. Herein, we highlight the reaction characteristics of combustion and HDC methods against CVOCs and provide a perspective on the need for accomplishing the elimination and recycling of industrial CVOCs in the design of possible combined processing methods.