This work presents a novel method f

This work presents a novel method for oxidation of organic matter in water solutions based on catalytic
membrane reactors. The oxidant, hydrogen peroxide, is generated directly in the bulk of the liquid investigated.
Commercial symmetric alumina hollow fibers have been used as a starting material thereafter
introducing the active phases. It has been proven that two different catalysts are necessary in order to
complete the overall reaction, as well as to generate hydrogen peroxide and a heterogeneous Fenton process.
Palladium has been used for the hydrogen peroxide generation and a second active phase, transitional
metal oxides or homogeneous Fe2+, has been used for the hydroxyl radical generation. An
additional method for specific Pd loading to the reaction zone based on sputtering technique has been
developed. All prepared catalytic membrane reactors (CMRs) are capable of generating hydrogen peroxide
in amounts comparable to CMRs reported in the literature. The catalytic membrane reactors prepared
by Pd impregnation show very high activity and stability in phenol oxidation reaching 40% of the generated
H2O2 usage in the oxidation reaction. Despite the very high activity of the catalytic membrane reactors
obtained by Pd sputtering in H2O2 production they suffer very fast deactivation. Specific reactivation
including a calcination step has been found to be appropriate for the recovery of their activity. Additional
experiments give new insights for better understanding of Pd deactivation especially when the metal
particles are of nanometer sizes.