Performance of nanostructure Fe-Ag-ZSM-5 catalysts for the catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds: Process optimization using response surface methodology

Gas phase catalytic oxidation of ethyl acetate was studied in low concentration over Fe-Ag-ZSM-5 catalysts under atmospheric pressure. The effect of important parameters such as Ag loading, Fe loading, calcinations temperature and reaction temperature was investigated and the process conditions were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD). The optimum condition for Ag loading, Fe loading, calcination temperature and reaction temperature was 5.17 wt%, 2 wt%, 580 °C and 350 °C, respectively. A maximum of 96% of ethyl acetate was removed under the optimum experimental conditions. The proposed model equation using RSM has shown good agreement with the experimental data, with a correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.949.