Dichloroacetic acid degradation employing hydrogen peroxide and UV radiation.

The degradation reaction of dichloroacetic acid employing H(2)O(2) and UVC radiation (253.7nm) has been studied in a well mixed reactor operating inside a recycling system. It has been shown that in an aqueous solution no stable reaction intermediates are formed and, at every time during the reaction, two mols of hydrochloric acid are formed for every mol of dichloroacetic acid that is decomposed and, in the same way, there is a paired agreement between the calculated TOC concentration corresponding to the unaltered dichloroacetic acid and the experimental values measured in the solution. On this basis and classical references from the scientific literature for the H(2)O(2) photolysis, a complete reaction scheme, apt for reaction kinetics mathematical modeling and ulterior scale-up is proposed.