Peracetic acid is a powerful sanitizer that has only recently been introduced in the Brazilian food industry. The main disadvantage of this sanitizer is its decomposition rate. The main purpose of this paper is to present results obtained in experiments carried out to study the decomposition kinetics of peracetic acid in aqueous solutions at 25, 35, 40 and 45 °C. The decompositon of peracetic acid is a first-order reaction. The decomposition rate constants are between 1.71x10-3 h -1 for 25 °C and 9.64x10-3 h-1 for 45 °C. The decomposition rate constant is affected by temperature according to the Arrhenius equation, and the activation energy for the decomposition of peracetic acid in aqueous solutions prepared from the commercial formulation used in this work is 66.20 kJ/mol.
peracetic acid; decomposition kinetics; temperature; pH; concentration
