Wet Catalytic Oxidation of a FeMnCe-Activated Semi-Coke Catalyst for Treating Piperazine Wastewater

[Image: see text] A FeMnCe-activated semi-coke catalyst (FeMnCe/ASC) was prepared by the co-precipitation method using semi-coke as the raw material. The structure and morphology were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy analyses. The catalytic activity and stability of the FeMnCe/ASC catalyst were investigated with piperazine as the target degradation pollutant and ammonia nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (COD) as the evaluation indexes. The results showed that the average pore size of FeMnCe/ASC mesopores was 6.68 nm, and the active components were uniformly dispersed on the carrier surface. Under the optimum conditions of piperazine solution including a mass concentration of 100 mg/L, a catalyst mass concentration of 4.0 g/L, a reaction temperature of 240 °C, an oxygen partial pressure of 1.2 MPa, a stirring speed of 500 rpm, and a reaction time of 120 min, the degradation rates of both ammonia nitrogen and COD reached 100%. After the catalyst was recycled five times, the degradation rates of ammonia nitrogen and COD still reached more than 90%. The elemental valence changes before and after the reaction were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and the intermediate products generated from piperazine degradation were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy to evaluate the mechanism of piperazine degradation and speculate about the degradation pathway of piperazine.