Patent ID: 6866788

Claim:
Process for the purification of aqueous effluents, in particular polluted water, by catalytic oxidation, making use of a three-phase reactor including two communicating compartments, in the process comprising: keeping the catalyst in suspension and circulating it continuously between the two compartments in the reactor by entrainment under the effect of a carrier gas injected into one of the compartment which is an entrainment compartment, an upward and cocurrent flow of the gas phase and of the liquid phase being produced in the entrainment compartment, and oxidizing the pollutants in contact with the catalyst in the other compartment which is a reaction compartment, by injection of a reactive oxidizing gas into the lower part of the reaction compartment, the suspended catalyst circulating in the reaction compartment as a downward flow of the aqueous phase while the oxidizing gas circulates as an upward counter current flow, without producing reversal of the direction of the downward circulation of the suspended catalyst.