Mixture effects in the catalytic decomposition of lean ternary mixtures of chlororganics under oxidising conditions

The objective of this study was to analyse the mixture effects on activity and product selectivity observed in the catalytic oxidative decomposition of a model gas containing three chlorinated organic molecules, namely, 1,2-dichloroethane, dichloromethane and trichloroethylene, over various protonic zeolites (H-ZSM-5, H-MOR and chemically dealuminated H-Y zeolites). Mutual inhibition of destruction efficiency was found in the ternary mixture, indicating that the conversion of a given compound was retarded by the other two compounds. Among the zeolite catalysts investigated, the chemically dealuminated Y zeolite showed the best catalytic performance due to its optimal combination of strong Bronsted sites and pore structure. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.