Heterogeneous photo-Fenton oxidation with natural clays for phenol and tyrosol remediation

Due to their excellent properties, clays have been widely used in several applications, particularly in catalysis. In this paper, three clays were used as heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalysts for phenol and tyrosol oxidations. Particular attention was given to the effect of the main operating conditions on the process performance. A total conversion was obtained for both organic pollutants with studied catalysts in 20 minutes reaction. For phenol, a total organic carbon (TOC) conversion of 93% was obtained using sieved and calcined smectite clay. The TOC conversion was 60% for tyrosol with the same catalyst. Clays were characterized by chemical analysis, BET, XRD, TPR and SEM.