Catalytic wet oxidation of the sodium salts of citric, lactic, malic and tartaric acids in highly alkaline, high ionic strength solution.

The catalytic wet oxidation: (WO) of four low molecular weight sodium salts of hydroxy carboxylic acids that can be found in alumina industry process water has been investigated using a representative synthetic solution. The most active catalyst: (CuO) catalysed the WO of the compounds studied predominantly via a homogenous complexation based reaction mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]