Modeling of catalytic ozonation process in a three-phase reactor.

In this research, the main objective was to determine the flow characteristics of a three-phase reactor in order to use this knowledge in the modeling of catalytic ozonation of aqueous dye solutions. Therefore, the stimulus-response method was used in the tracer experiments; thus, the degree of liquid mixing in the reactor was estimated by means of residence time distribution, Peclet number and axial dispersion coefficient in the presence and the absence of the catalyst. Experimental data were obtained by performing the catalytic ozonation of aqueous Acid Red-151(AR-151) and Remazol Brilliant Blue-R (RBBR) dye solutions, in the presence of perfluorinated-octyl-alumina (PFOA) catalyst particles at different operating conditions. The chemical oxygen demand (COD), the dye and ozone concentrations in the liquid phase were measured at the steady state along the height of the column reactor and at the exit. According to the results, it was observed that the gas-liquid reactor without the catalyst particles showed a hydrodynamic behavior equivalent to two or three completely stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) in-series for the conventional ozonation process. The presence of catalyst particles caused the flow behavior of the three phase reactor to approach to one CSTR or two CSTRs in-series depending on the gas and liquid flow rates so that the modeling of the catalytic ozonation process was done satisfactorily on that basis. The modeling results showed satisfactory agreement with the experimental ones in the prediction of outlet dye and dissolved ozone concentrations from the reactor, especially at relatively high gas velocities (QG=150 and 200 L h(-1)) for AR-151, where the dissolved ozone concentration was not limited. However, the discrepancy was about 15% between the theory and experiment at the lower gas flow rates due to the limited ozone concentrations with respect to the dye concentrations at the high inlet dye concentration of AR-151 (CD,i=100 mg L(-1)). For RBBR, the predicted and experimental values were very close to each other since ozone limitation or dye abundance was not realized in these experiments.

Effect of acclimatization of microorganisms to heavy metals on the performance of activated sludge process.

Although selected heavy metals (HMs) stimulate biological reactions at low concentrations, all HMs are toxic to microorganisms (MOs) at moderate concentrations and can cause inhibitory effects on the biological processes. Therefore, MOs must be acclimated to HMs or other toxic substances present in wastewaters (WWs) before they are used in an activated sludge process (ASP). In this study, combined effect of Cu(2+) and Zn(2+) ions in a synthetic WW on the efficiency of a laboratory-scale ASP without recycle was investigated using acclimated MOs at different extents.A synthetic feed solution of 1222 mg L(-1) proteose-peptone (corresponding to 1300 mg COD L(-1)) served as a source of carbon. Cu(2+) and Zn(2+) ions at different concentrations (1.5, 4.5 and 9, 27 mg L(-1), respectively) were introduced in the feed to a continuously stirred activated sludge reactor at different hydraulic residence times (2-40 h) keeping pH, temperature and stock feed composition constant. The combined effects of copper and zinc ions were determined by mixing these metallic ions at the specified combinations of concentrations such as "1.5 mg L(-1) of Cu(2+)+9 mg L(-1) of Zn(2+)" and "4.5 mg L(-1) of Cu(2+)+27 mg L(-1) of Zn(2+)". It was observed that using seed MOs acclimatized to two times of the combined threshold concentration of these HMs for an unduly long period of time (1-4 months) caused adverse effects on the ASP performance. Besides, it was found that usual inhibition effects of these HMs were enhanced with increasing period of acclimation. Substantially lower substrate removal efficiencies were obtained with acclimatized MOs than those obtained with non-acclimatized MOs. At the higher initial substrate concentration of 2500 mg COD L(-1), substrate-inhibition occurred causing a decrease in the specific growth rate constant (k); however, HM inhibition was suppressed, resulting to about 20% increase in treatment efficiency of the ASP. It can be concluded that the time period necessary for acclimatization of seed MOs must be adjusted carefully with concentrations of HMs lower than their threshold concentrations to achieve an optimal operation of an aerobic biological process.

A kinetic study on the decolorization of aqueous solutions of Acid Red-151 by ozonation.

The ozonation kinetics of an azo dye, namely, Acid Red-151 was investigated. Effects of pH, initial ozone, and initial dye concentrations on the ozonation of the dye were studied. The reaction orders were found to be one with respect to both ozone and dye concentrations for the studied pH range of 2.5-10. The reaction rate constants were obtained as 125.8, 95.4, 87.9, and 129.9 L mmol(-1) min(-1) at the pH values of 2.5, 5, 7, and 10, respectively. The initial ozonation rate decreased with the increasing pH from 2.5 to 7. A further increase of pH to 10, yielded higher initial rates compared to the rates at pH = 5 and 7. However, increasing the initial dye and ozone concentrations increased the initial ozonation rate of the dye. Depending upon the initial conditions, up to 99% decolorization was achieved by ozonation in the present system. Also, chemical oxygen demand (COD) was partially reduced by ozone; the highest COD reduction being 58%, occurred at pH = 2.5, initial ozone and dye concentrations being 0.0360 and 0.0440 mmol/L, respectively.