*3.1. Commercial Large Scale Catalyst Preparation*

Approximately 10 kg of iron-based metal catalyst (consisting of the following ratio: 100:17:12:16.5 of support: iron: manganese: potassium) was synthesized by Water Star Inc (Newbury, OH, USA) using typical incipient wetness impregnation (IWI) methods. The support was a Macrolite® engineered ceramic media (M2) (Fairmount Water Solutions). This catalyst is denoted in Table 1 as Fe:M2-3. The catalyst particles ranged from 0.6 mm to 2 mm in diameter. Before the catalyst was loaded into the reactor, the catalyst was reduced in hydrogen, passivated, and soaked in mineral oil for 12 h. Approximately 9 mL of mineral oil was used for every 20 g of catalyst. This is similar to the amounts of mineral oil used in the laboratory scale studies [17].
