(562au) Wastewater Treatment By Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation Process Based on Response Surface Methodology

Catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) is one of the most economical and environmental-friendly for oxidation decomposition of organic refractory materials, such as; phenol's compounds with aid of heterogeneous catalysts. In the present work an experimental work and simulation have been carried out to study the oxidation process for phenol's degradation in the effluent wastewater from the small paint manufacturing plant is located in the Iraq. Experimental set-up was designed and constructed to get reliable data. Lab-scale packed bed reactor was made of stainless steel with diameter of 25.0 mm and height of 150.0 mm.The catalyst is particles of activated carbon with diameter 0.5 mm. Pressure and temperature were monitored by high accuracy Transducers, while flow rate of air and water were measured by Rotameters. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) was used to determine concentration of oxygen and phenol .Stochastic and deterministic methods were used to study reaction mechanisms and developing reaction kinetics models.Catalyst deactivation was taken into account. The selected process variables which affecting reactor performance are: initial concentration of phenol, reactor temperature, reactor pressure, air flow rate and water flow rate. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) has proven reliable search for selecting the optimal operating conditions.The oxidation process behaves as pseudo first order reaction with respect to phenol concentration. It has found that phenol's degradation could enhance by increasing of: temperature, pressure, and gas flow rate, while initial concentration of phenol and liquid flow rate give different images. High removal of phenol obtained is 95% at optimum operating conditions of: LHSV=7.0 h^-1, temperature=155°C, oxygen partial pressure= 1000.0 KPa and phenol concentration=10.0 mg/L. Down-flow regime is more effective than up-flow mode for improving degradation of phenol. Reasonable agreements have been found when compared the simulated results with the experimental data.