Wet Air Oxidation of Desizing Wastewater fromthe Textile Industry

Lecheng Lei, Xijun Hu,* Guohua Chen, J ohn F. Porter, and Po Lock Yue
Department of Chemical Engineering, Hong Kong University of Scienceand Technology,
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Wet ai r oxi dati on (WAO) was appl i ed to treat the desi zi ng wastewater from natural and man-
made fi ber processi ng i n a 2-L autocl ave reactor. The range of operati ng temperatures exami ned
was between 150 and 290 C. The parti al pressure of oxygen ranged from 0.375 to 2.25 MPa at
a reference temperature of 25 C. Vari ati ons i n chemi cal oxygen demand (COD) and total organi c
carbon were moni tored duri ng each experi ment and used to eval uate the performance of the
reacti on process. Experi mental resul ts showed that WAO i s an effi ci ent method for the treatment
of desi zi ng wastewater. A hi gher COD removal was achi eved under gentl er reacti on condi ti ons
wi th the ai d of a catal yst. A two-parameter mathemati cal model i nvol vi ng a fast reacti on and
a sl ow reacti on was used to descri be the WAO reacti on ki neti cs and to cal cul ate the reacti on
acti vati on energi es.
Introduction
Wastewater di scharged from the desi zi ng processes
of the texti l e i ndustry i s characteri zed by i ts very hi gh
chemi cal oxygen demand (COD) and i s one of the mai n
pol l uti on sources i n the texti l e i ndustry. The desi zi ng
wastewater from natural fi ber processi ng operati ons
mai nl y contai ns starch, gl ucose, and yeast and has a
COD val ue of 10000-20000 mg/L and bi ol ogi cal oxygen
demand (BOD) from 5000 to 10 000 mg/L. Man-made
fi ber desi zi ng wastewaters typi cal l y have pol y(vi nyl
al cohol ) (PVA) as the major content, at COD l evel s of
between 10 000 and 40 000 mg/L, as wel l as a rel ati vel y
smal l amount of BOD (500-1000 mg/L). The l ow BOD/
COD rati o means that thi s ki nd of wastewater i s very
di ffi cul t to bi odegrade. To compl y wi th the current Hong
Kong di scharge regul ati ons, factori es have to reduce
thei r COD and BOD val ues to 2000 and 800 mg/L,
respecti vel y, before di schargi ng to sewers.
I n general , there are four methods avai l abl e for
wastewater treatment: chemi cal oxi dati on, bi ochemi cal
oxi dati on, i nci nerati on, and wet ai r oxi dati on. Chemi cal
oxi dati on i s to oxi di ze the pol l utants i n the wastewater
i nto carbon di oxi de and water wi th strong oxi di zers,
such as ozone and hydrogen peroxi de. The chemi cal
oxi dati on process i s rel ati vel y si mpl e to operate but i s
onl y cost-effecti ve for pol l utants at l ow concentrati ons.
I t woul d become expensi ve for hi gh COD wastewater
such as that di scharged from the desi zi ng process.
Bi ol ogi cal oxi dati on i s a commonl y appl i ed method i n
wastewater treatment. However, i t i s not sui tabl e for
wastewater wi th COD above 10 000 mg/L. The l arge
quanti ty of sl udge produced by thi s method al so i mposes
further probl ems. I nci nerati on may convert the pol l ut-
ants effecti vel y to i nnocuous end products at tempera-
tures above 700 C. I t i s not economi cal l y attracti ve
unl ess the COD of the waste i s above 100 000 mg/L
because a l arge amount of energy wi l l be wasted i n
boi l i ng and heati ng the water (steam) i f the organi c
concentrati on i s not hi gh enough. Wet ai r oxi dati on
(WAO), whi ch mi neral i zes the pol l utants at el evated
temperatures (200-350 C) and pressures, has the
abi l i ty to convert most organi c compounds i nto carbon
di oxi de and water.
1,2
Compared wi th tradi ti onal tech-
nol ogi es, the wet ai r oxi dati on process has the advan-
tage of hi gh reacti on rate, smal l quanti ty of secondary
pol l utants, and l ess space requi rement. Thus the WAO
process mi ght be an economi cal l y feasi bl e method for
the treatment of desi zi ng wastewater.
Dati ng back to the earl y 20th century, wet ai r
oxi dati on has been used for treati ng spent sul fi te l i quor
from paper mi l l s.
3
And there are over 200 Zi mpro WAO
uni ts i n operati on at more than 160 l ocati ons through-
out the worl d.
4
However, i ts appl i cati on has been l i mi ted
due to i ts severe operati on condi ti ons; i .e., i t usual l y
runs under hi gh pressure and temperature. The purpose
of thi s work i s to i nvesti gate the WAO treatment of
desi zi ng wastewater, to l ower the reacti on temperature
and pressure by addi ng a catal yst, and to study the
reacti on ki neti cs.
Experimental Section
A schemati c di agram of the wet ai r oxi dati on (WAO)
system, whi ch has been used to treat dyei ng and
pri nti ng wastewater i n our previ ous studi es,
5,6
i s shown
i n Fi gure 1. The WAO system has a gas suppl y, a 2-L
reactor, a wastewater chargi ng system, and a l i qui d
sampl i ng poi nt. The operati on procedures of WAO
process are descri bed bel ow. Fi rst the reactor was
preheated to 60-70 C. The wastewater (1.4 L) was then
charged i nto the reactor usi ng the water pump. The
space occupi ed by gas i nsi de the reactor was 600 mL.
Pure ni trogen was used to purge the ai r i nsi de the
reactor at a total pressure of 1 MPa for 2 mi n after
whi ch the system was i sol ated. The reactor was heated
to the desi red reacti on temperature (between 150 and
290 C) whi ch took between 1 and 2 h. Once the sel ected
reacti on temperature was reached, pure oxygen was
i ntroduced i nto the reactor and the reacti on was as-
sumed to start (ti me t )0). At desi gnated ti me i nterval s
thereafter, l i qui d sampl es were taken from the reactor
and anal yzed for COD and total organi c carbon (TOC)
contents. The system pressure i s kept constant by
suppl yi ng oxygen to bal ance the pressure drop caused
by sampl i ng. At the end of the reacti on ti me, the heati ng
jacket was turned off and the reactor was cool ed for hal f
* To whom al l correspondence shoul d be addressed. Emai l :
kexhu@ust.hk. Fax: (852) 23580054. Tel : (852) 2358 7134.
2896 I nd. Eng. Chem. Res. 2000, 39, 2896-2901
10.1021/i e990607s CCC: $19.00 2000 Ameri can Chemi cal Soci ety
Publ i shed on Web 06/20/2000
an hour. Tap water was then passed through the cool i ng
coi l to further cool the reactor to 60-70 C. Pure
ni trogen was passed through the reactor to di scharge
the treated wastewater. The reactor was fi l l ed wi th
dei oni zed water, and the sti rrer was operated at 1000
rpm for 5 mi n. Thi s fi nal step was repeated three or
four ti mes unti l the di scharged water was vi sual l y cl ean.
The COD val ue i s assayed wi th an HACH-DR2000
COD anal yzer. The anal yti cal agent, whi ch consi sts of
0.05 g of HgSO
4
, 2.5 mL of 98% H
2
SO
4
, 0.5 mL of 1
mol /L K
2
Cr
2
O
5
, i s mi xed wi th 2 mL of wastewater
sampl e and i ncubated at 150 C for 2 h. COD i s then
assayed after cool i ng wi th the COD anal yzer. Al l the
chemi cal s used are i n anal yti cal puri ty grade.
The desi zi ng wastewaters i nvesti gated i n thi s study
were provi ded by two Hong Kong texti l e compani es. The
fi rst was from a cotton desi zi ng process and contai ned
pri mari l y starch and gl ucose. The COD, BOD, and TOC
val ues for the cotton desi zi ng wastewater were 10280,
3754, and 3558 mg/L, respecti vel y. The second was from
a man-made fi ber desi zi ng process, and pol y(vi nyl
al cohol ) (PVA) was i ts major component wi th COD,
BOD, and TOC val ues of 12600, 620, and 3824 mg/L,
respecti vel y.
Results and Discussion
COD and TOC Removals Caused by Heating.
Si nce heati ng the reactor to the desi red reacti on tem-
perature took from 1 to 2 h, the COD and TOC
vari ati ons duri ng the heati ng peri od i n the absence of
oxygen were exami ned fi rst. Fi gure 2 shows the COD
and TOC reducti ons of the cotton desi zi ng wastewater
when i t was heated from ambi ent temperature to 290
C. The reducti on or removal i s defi ned as the di fference
between the i ni ti al COD or TOC val ue and i ts val ue at
a gi ven ti me di vi ded by i ts i ni ti al amount. I t was seen
that there was l i ttl e change i n COD or TOC when the
temperature was bel ow 240 C. When the wastewater
was further heated from 240 to 290 C, there was a
si gni fi cant COD reducti on. A COD reducti on of 24%and
a TOC removal of 8% coul d be achi eved by si mpl e
thermal decomposi ti on at 290 C.
7
Thi s i s the reason
the COD or TOC reducti on at zero reacti on ti me has a
fi ni te number i nstead of zero i n the fol l owi ng fi gures.
The reducti on of COD i s more promi nent than that of
TOC duri ng thermal decomposi ti on. Thi s i s due to the
pyrol ysi s produci ng hydrogen gas that mi ght be l ost
from the sol uti on at hi gh temperature, whi ch does not
affect the TOC val ue.
Effect of Oxygen on theWAO Process. However,
by keepi ng the reactor at 290 C for a l onger ti mesup
to 150 mi nsl i ttl e further reducti on i n COD or TOC was
observed i n the absence of oxygen, as shown i n Fi gure
3. Fi gure 3 al so shows that a si gni fi cant i ncrease i n both
COD and TOC removal (over 75%) was observed i n the
presence of oxygen at a parti al pressure of 1.5 MPa (at
a reference temperature of 25 C)swhi ch i s just the
requi red stoi chi ometri c amount to compl etel y mi neral i ze
the organi c carbon i n the cotton desi zi ng wastewater.
Fi ve di fferent l evel s of i ni ti al oxygen parti al pressure,
0.375, 0.75, 1.125, 1.5, and 2.25 MPa, al l at a reference
temperature of 25 C, whi ch correspond to 25%, 50%,
75%, 100%, and 150% of the theoreti cal requi rement of
oxygen, were tested to study the effect of oxygen parti al
pressure on the performance of the WAO process. The
stoi chi ometri c (theoreti cal ) amount i s defi ned as the
amount of oxygen needed to chemi cal l y mi neral i ze al l
the pol l utants i n the wastewater. The WAO treatment
of natural fi ber desi zi ng wastewater under di fferent
i ni ti al oxygen parti al pressures i s shown i n Fi gure 4.
The COD and TOC removal rates were not surpri si ngl y
found to i ncrease wi th oxygen parti al pressure as the
concentrati on of di ssol ved oxygen i n the l i qui d phase i s
proporti onal to the correspondi ng oxygen parti al pres-
sure.
Figure 1. Schemati c di agram of the wet ai r oxi dati on system.
Figure 2. COD and TOC reducti ons duri ng the reactor heati ng
peri od for cotton desi zi ng wastewater.
Figure 3. Effect of oxygen on the WAO of cotton desi zi ng
wastewater at 290 C.
I nd. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol . 39, No. 8, 2000 2897
I n Fi gure 4 we noted that the COD removal exceeded
the oxygen suppl i ed at l ow oxygen parti al pressure. For
exampl e, 48% of COD removal i s achi eved wi th 25% of
oxygen suppl i ed. The reason for thi s phenomenon i s that
the removal of COD i s the overal l resul t of oxi dati on
reacti on and thermol ysi s.
7-9
Another reason i s the
regul ar addi ti ons of oxygen to mai ntai n the reacti on
pressure after sampl i ng so that i n fact the COD removal
i s not i n excess of the actual oxygen suppl y; i .e., the
actual oxygen suppl y i s more than 25%. Thi s phenom-
enon begi ns to di sappear when the oxygen suppl i ed i s
more than 75% of the theoreti cal amount.
Effect of Reaction Temperature on the WAO
Process. The WAO treatment of natural fi ber desi zi ng
wastewater was further exami ned at fi ve temperatures,
wi th the suppl y of oxygen fi xed at 1.5 MPa, whi ch i s
equi val ent to the stoi chi ometri c amount of 100% COD
removal . The rates of WAO reacti on and COD removal
i ncrease wi th the reacti on temperature, as shown i n
Fi gure 5. There i s no si gni fi cant COD or TOC removal
at a temperature of 150 C. A COD removal of near 80%
i s obtai ned after 100 mi n of reacti on at 290 C.
Catalytic WAO Process. Al though the WAO reac-
ti on i s very successful i n the treatment of natural fi ber
desi zi ng wastewater, i t must be operated under rel a-
ti vel y severe condi ti ons i n order to achi eve a hi gh COD
removal rate. I t i s necessary to i mprove the process to
reduce the reacti on temperature and pressure. Addi ng
some catal yst i n the WAO process i s one of the most
popul ar opti ons.
5,10-12
I n thi s study, transi ti on metal s
i n the form of sul fates and ni trates were used as the
catal ysts. The amount of catal yst added i nto the reacti on
system was 100 mg/L i n terms of metal i on concentra-
ti on. Agai n, the oxygen suppl y was fi xed at the theoreti -
cal requi rement, 1.5 MPa at a reference temperature
of 25 C. The reacti on temperature was set at 240 C.
The catal yti c wet ai r oxi dati on (CWAO) treatment of
cotton desi zi ng wastewater i s shown i n Fi gures 6 and
7. The addi ti on of catal ysts si gni fi cantl y enhances the
removal rates of COD and TOC. The catal yti c acti vi ty
of ni trates i s sl i ghtl y hi gher than that of sul fates, and
Cu(NO
3
)
2
i s the best catal yst achi evi ng a COD removal
of 90%.
WAOof DesizingWastewater fromaMan-Made
Fiber Process. Havi ng shown WAO to be a useful tool
i n the treatment of cotton desi zi ng wastewater, i ts
appl i cabi l i ty to the treatment of desi zi ng wastewater
from a man-made fi ber processi ng operati on was exam-
i ned. The i ni ti al COD, BOD, and TOC val ues of thi s
Figure4. Effect of oxygen parti al pressure on the WAO of cotton
desi zi ng wastewater at 240 C.
Figure 5. Effect of reacti on temperature on the WAO of cotton
desi zi ng wastewater at 1.5 MPa parti al oxygen pressure.
Figure6. Effect of metal sul fates on the WAO of cotton desi zi ng
wastewater at 240 C and 1.5 MPa parti al oxygen pressure.
2898 I nd. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol . 39, No. 8, 2000
wastewater were 12 600, 620, and 3824 mg/L, respec-
ti vel y. The extremel y l ow BOD/COD rati o (0.05) i mpl i es
that thi s wastewater i s very di ffi cul t to be treated by
bi ol ogi cal methods. Fi gure 8 shows the effect of tem-
perature on the WAO treatment of thi s wastewater at
an oxygen parti al pressure of 2 MPa and four di fferent
reacti on temperatures. A hi gher oxygen pressure (2
MPa) was used here because the chemi cal fi ber desi zi ng
wastewater had a l arger COD val ue so more oxygen was
requi red to compl etel y oxi di ze the waste content. The
choi ce of 2 MPa was agai n based on provi di ng the
system wi th the requi red stoi chi ometri c amount to
mi neral i ze the organi c carbon i n the wastewater. Si mi -
l ar to cotton desi zi ng wastewater, the COD and TOC
removal s were i mproved by i ncreasi ng reacti on tem-
perature. At 270 C, 90% COD reducti on and 80% TOC
removal were achi eved after 2 h.
Fi gure 8 al so shows the bi odegradabi l i ty change for
the man-made fi ber desi zi ng wastewater. The bi ode-
gradabi l i ty i s defi ned as the BOD to COD rati o. After
the WAO treatment, the bi odegradabi l i ty was si gni fi -
cantl y enhancedsmore than 80% was obtai ned at a
reacti on temperature of 270 C for 2 h. An i ncrease i n
the reacti on temperature hel ps to enhance the bi ode-
gradabi l i ty of wastewater. The i ncrease i n BOD to COD
rati o i s due to the decomposi ti on of the l arge rel ati vel y
bi ol ogi cal l y stabl e mol ecul e (PVA) i nto smal l er more
biodegradable molecules. This suggests that WAO should
be a sui tabl e pretreatment step before bi ol ogi cal deg-
radati on.
As previ ousl y shown i n Fi gure 2 for the natural fi ber
desi zi ng wastewater, some degree of thermal decompo-
si ti on was al so observed for thi s system. Once agai n,
di fferent i ni ti al COD and TOC reducti ons were observed
at di fferent reacti on temperatures. However, the bi o-
degradabi l i ty coul d not be i mproved by si mpl y heati ng
the wastewater. Thi s i s evi dent from Fi gure 8 where
the BOD to COD rati os have the same i ni ti al val ue for
di fferent reacti on temperatures.
Reaction Kinetics. The reacti ons duri ng WAO are
very compl ex i n terms of many i ntermedi ate and
ul ti mate products.
13
No attempt i s made to provi de a
detai l ed reacti on anal ysi s on i ndi vi dual compounds.
I nstead a bri ef di scussi on on the ki neti cs study of COD
reducti on wi l l be gi ven. Si nce the reactor was wel l
sti rred and the oxygen suppl y was mai ntai ned at the
stoi chi ometri c requi rement and more oxygen was gi ven
after each sampl i ng, the mass transfer control l ed regi me
i s el i mi nated and the di ssol ved oxygen concentrati on i s
assumed constant for a gi ven parti al oxygen pressure.
The rate data were model ed by fi rst-order ki neti cs as
i n the fol l owi ng equati on, wi th the reactant concentra-
ti on gi ven as COD
where t i s reacti on ti me and k i s the speci fi c reacti on
rate constant whi ch has the fol l owi ng temperature
dependency
where k
0
i s the pre-exponenti al factor, E i s the acti va-
ti on energy, R i s the uni versal gas constant, and T i s
the temperature i n kel vi n. I ntegrati ng eq 1 gi ves
where COD
0
i s the i ni ti al COD val ue. By pl otti ng
l n(COD
0
/COD) versus ti me, the sl ope i s the speci fi c
Figure7. Effect of metal ni trates on the WAO of cotton desi zi ng
wastewater at 240 C and 1.5 MPa parti al oxygen pressure.
Figure 8. Effect of reacti on temperature on the WAO of man-
made fi ber desi zi ng wastewater at 2 MPa parti al oxygen pressure.
-
dCOD
dt
) kCOD (1)
k ) k
0
exp(-E/RT) (2)
l n(COD
0
/COD) ) kt (3)
I nd. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol . 39, No. 8, 2000 2899
reacti on rate constant k. A typi cal pl ot of the WAO
treatment of cotton desi zi ng wastewater at a fi xed
parti al oxygen pressure of 1.5 MPa and four di fferent
reacti on temperatures (Fi gure 4) i s shown i n Fi gure 9.
The data fi t wel l i nto two strai ght l i nes for a gi ven
temperature, i ndi cati ng that oxi dati on proceeds i n two
di sti nct steps: a fast i ni ti al reacti on of l arge mol ecul es
decomposed i nto i ntermedi ate products, carbon di oxi de,
and water, fol l owed by a sl ow reacti on of further
oxi di zi ng the i ntermedi ate products i nto end products
of carbon di oxi de and water.
To cal cul ate the acti vated energi es, eq 2 was trans-
formed i nto a l ogari thmi c form, whi ch was pl otted i n
Fi gure 10. As expected, the rate constant i ncreases wi th
i ncreasi ng temperature, but thi s temperature effect i s
more si gni fi cant for the fast reacti on step. As the sl ow
reacti on, the reacti on rate i s not very sensi ti ve to the
change of temperature. Thi s i ndi cates that the fast
reacti on has a hi gh acti vati on energy, whi l e the sl ow
reacti on has a smal l acti vated energy. The cal cul ated
acti vated energi es are E
fast
) 30 kJ/mol and E
sl ow
) 9.2
kJ/mol .
I t shoul d be remembered that the rate constant i n eq
1 i s the product of the true speci fi c rate constant and
the di ssol ved oxygen concentrati on i n water whi ch i s a
functi on of the parti al oxygen pressure, i .e.
The rate constant k can be reasonabl y assumed as
constant for a gi ven oxygen parti al pressure onl y when
oxygen i s i n excess. Otherwi se as the parti al oxygen
pressure changes, the rate constant k may vary. Thi s
i s shown i n Fi gure 11 for the WAO of cotton desi zi ng
wastewater at 240 C (Fi gure 4). The parti al oxygen
pressure vari es from 0.375 to 2.25 MPa. The extracted
rate constants versus parti al oxygen pressure are shown
i n Fi gure 12.
Si nce the stoi chi ometri c oxygen requi rement for com-
pl ete oxi dati on of the cotton desi zi ng wastewater i s 1.5
MPa at 25 C, i t has a si gni fi cant effect on the rate
constant of the fast reacti on i f the oxygen parti al
pressure i s l ess than thi s amount. However, when
oxygen i s i n excess (hi gher than the stoi chi ometri c
oxygen demand), the rate constant becomes i ndependent
of the parti al pressure of oxygen because the di ssol ved
oxygen concentrati on can be consi dered as constant i n
thi s case. The sl ow reacti on stage has a weaker depen-
dency on the oxygen parti al pressure for the whol e
pressure regi on consi dered i ndi cati ng that the oxygen
requi rement of the sl ow reacti on step i s much l ess than
that of the fast reacti on. I t al so i ndi cates that the
i ntermedi ate products are di ffi cul t to be oxi di zed even
at a l arge excess of oxygen.
Conclusions
Wet ai r oxi dati on i s found to be an effecti ve method
for treati ng the desi zi ng wastewater from both cotton
and man-made fi ber processi ng operati ons, one of the
major COD contri butors i n the texti l e i ndustry waste-
water. More than 90% COD reducti on and 80% TOC
Figure9. WAO of cotton desi zi ng wastewater at 1.5 MPa parti al
oxygen pressure.
Figure 10. Effect of temperature on rate constants of cotton
desi zi ng wastewater at 1.5 MPa parti al oxygen pressure.
k ) k[P
O
2
]
n
(4)
Figure 11. WAO of cotton desi zi ng wastewater at 240 C.
Figure 12. Effect of oxygen concentrati on on rate constants of
cotton desi zi ng wastewater at 240 C.
2900 I nd. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol . 39, No. 8, 2000
removal can be obtai ned by properl y choosi ng the
reacti on condi ti ons. I ncreasi ng the reacti on temperature
and pressure hel ps to enhance the WAO effi ci ency.
However, a certai n porti on of the organi c pol l utants
coul d not be removed even at el evated temperature and
prol onged reacti on ti me. The performance of the WAO
process can be i mproved by addi ng some sui tabl e
catal yst. WAO was al so demonstrated to be a sui tabl e
pretreatment method before bi odegradati on because the
BOD/COD rati o of desi zi ng wastewater was si gni fi cantl y
i ncreased by WAO treatment. A prel i mi nary i nvesti ga-
ti on of reacti on ki neti cs shows that wet ai r oxi dati on of
desi zi ng wastewater fol l ows two steps, a fast reacti on
fol l owed by a sl ow reacti on stage.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to the I ndustry and Technol -
ogy Devel opment Counci l of Hong Kong for thei r fi nan-
ci al support.
Nomenclature
COD ) chemi cal oxygen demand, a parameter for waste-
water characteri zati on, mg/L
COD
0
) i ni ti al COD val ue, mg/L
E ) acti vati on energy, kJ/mol
k ) reacti on constant
k
0
) pre-exponenti al factor i n the Arrheni us equati on
R ) gas constant, 8.314 J/(mol K)
t ) reacti on ti me, mi n
T ) reacti on temperature, C or K
TOC ) total organi c carbon, a parameter for wastewater
characteri zati on, mg/L
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Received for review August 9, 1999
Revised manuscript received March 30, 2000
Accepted Apri l 18, 2000
I E990607S
I nd. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol . 39, No. 8, 2000 2901