Effective Catalysts for Wet Oxidation Of Formic Acid by Oxygen and Ozone

The catalytic wet-air oxidation and catalytic ozonation of a formic acid solution have been studied at room temperature using more than 20 kinds of catalysts including Pt/C, Pt/Al₂O₃, Pd/Al₂O₃, etc. The most effective catalyst was Pt/Al₂O₃. The apparent activation energies for the catalytic wet-air oxidation and ozonation on Pt/Al₂O₃ were both about 5 kcal/mol. This fact suggests that these reactions on the catalyst were diffusion controlled, and thus, the potential of the catalyst is likely much higher.