Aiming at the characteristic that the concentration of phenol-containing wastewater in tank containers is rather high,advanced study has conducted by wet catalytic oxidation process. The preparation conditions of catalyst CuO/AC,such as its concentration of the soakage solution calcination temperature,calcination time,etc. are explored. Simulated phenol-containing wastewater is catalyzed,oxidized and degraded with this catalyst. Its technical parameters,including reaction temperature,dosages of oxidant and catalyst,reaction time,etc. are optimized. The best reaction conditions are confirmed and its application research is carried through. The results show that the optimum preparation conditions of CuO/AC catalyst are as follows：the concentration of Cu（NO₃）₂ is 3%,soakage temperature 30 ℃，soaking time 6 h,calcinating temperature 300 ℃,and calcinating time 3 h．The optimized reaction conditions of CWO for treating phenol wastewater are as follows： reaction temperature is 170 ℃,reaction time 1 h，dosage of catalyst 2 g/L,and dosage of oxidant m（H₂O₂）∶m（COD）=3. Thus,the COD removal rate of the phenol-containing cleaning wastewater is above 95%,revealing a significant treatment effect.