Efficient treatment of biodiesel wastewater by catalytic combustion

Catalytic combustion method was proposed in this study for the continuous treatment of the biodiesel wastewater over the Pt/Al2O3@cordierite catalyst. The components of biodiesel wastewater and the Pt-based catalyst were analyzed. Excellent catalyst activity and stability were observed during the wastewater treatment. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of biodiesel wastewater was significantly reduced through the catalytic combustion, with the COD value still lower than 500 mg/L after 200 h continuous run. No organic gas was found in the gas product and all organic compounds removed were converted to carbon dioxide and water.