Processing of petrochemical compounds produces a large amount of wastewater. This wastewater consists of toxic (hazardous) materials that can not be discharged to the environment without treatment. As restrictive environmental constraints increase, new technologies are needed to treat those toxic materials before discharging them to the environment. Wet Air Oxidation (WAO) is one of these new methods. / This study casts light on the effect of initial pH on the WAO of benzene at different temperatures and pressures. It was found that at pH 6, a temperature of 260°C and a partial pressure of oxygen of 1.38 MPa around 97% degradation was achieved in one hour. When the initial pH was lowered to 4 more than 90% degradation was achieved at 220°C and PO2 of 1.38 MPa in only 15 minutes.` It was concluded that the higher the temperature the better the benzene degradation, and the faster benzene degradation has been obtained with the increasing partial pressure of oxygen. The main intermediates were acetic acid and formic acid. / Furthermore, it was found that the degradation of benzene can be further enhanced in the presence of phenol. The main reason can be attributed to the effect of the free radicals generated from the fast phenol degradation. A simplified pathway for oxidation of benzene was proposed.

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