Recycling of a spent alkaline battery as a catalyst for the total oxidation of hydrocarbons

[Display omitted] •Recycling of spent alkaline batteries was studied.•Spent alkaline batteries were tested as a catalyst for total oxidation of VOCs.•The effect of acid treatment on SB catalyst was investigated. A spent alkaline battery-based (SB) catalyst was prepared from the black mass of a spent alkaline battery to determine the potential of recycling spent alkaline batteries as catalysts for the total oxidation of hydrocarbons. Five different acids (H2SO4, HNO3, C2H2O4, HCl, and H3PO4) were used to examine the effect of acid treatment on catalytic activity during catalyst preparation. Hexane, benzene, toluene, and o-xylene (HBTX) were adopted as the VOCs for experiments. The properties of the prepared catalysts were studied using ICP/OES, BET, XRD, ATR/FTIR, TGA, SEM, and H2-TPR analyses. The results showed that acid treatment significantly influenced the activity of the SB (400) catalyst, with the type of acid also found to greatly influence the activity of the catalyst. The order of activity according to the type of acid was H2SO4 > HNO3 > C2H2O4 > HCl > H3PO4 > none. Good performance of an acid-treated SB catalyst was associated with high concentrations of manganese and iron and a large BET surface area. In addition, the sequence in which the TPR peaks appeared at low temperatures according to each acid treatment was consistent with that of catalyst activity.