Bromate in water has been associated with cancer risks for lifetime exposures, and present technologies for its removal have important drawbacks that create a need for the development of new and more efficient alternatives. Heterogeneous catalysis has been explored for the removal of inorganic pollutants from water with promising results. In this work we aim to improve the efficiency of the catalytic reduction of bromate to bromine by exploring different supports (activated carbon, titanium dioxide and multi-walled carbon nanotubes) for the catalytic metallic phase (Pd, Pt, Rh and Ru). Improvements of the turn-over frequency in the order of 1000 from previously reported activated carbon supported catalysts were obtained with titanium dioxide and multi-walled carbon nanotubes for experiments using 10 mg L⁻¹ initial concentration of bromate; leading to complete conversion into bromide in under 5 min for TiO₂ and 30 min for MWCNT.

On the other hand, the use of structured catalysts for advanced water treatment processes has been recently shown as a promising alternative for conventional catalysts. We demonstrate the application of highly active metal-support pairings on a structured catalyst towards bromate removal during continuous operation, achieving up to 87% bromate conversion at steady-state.