Empirical determination and modeling of ozone mass transfer in a planar falling film reactor

Abstract

This study explores the experimental determination of the mass transfer rate of ozone in a planar falling film reactor at a wavy-laminar flow regime and provides empirical models for predicting the liquid side mass transfer coefficient, KL, of ozone in the semi-batch and continuous processes. The obtained results show that increasing the superficial gas velocity, UG, and the liquid Reynolds number (60≤ReL≤240) enhance the KL of ozone in both the semi-batch and continuous processes. While in the semi-batch process the UG has the predominant impact on the KL, in the continuous process the liquid ReL governs the mass transfer rate of ozone. Based on these findings, empirical models for predicting the KL as a function of ReL and UG in the semi-batch and continuous processes are developed. Comparing the experimental and the calculated KL values showed that the values calculated by the models match well (R2>0.99) with the experimental values.