Investigation of chlorine wall decay in an old, decommissioned metallic pipe using a pipe section reactor

Abstract

Abstract The study investigates the kinetics of free chlorine depletion in tap water from the Sofia distribution network. The overall decay rates, the bulk reaction rate coefficient, the wall reaction rate coefficient and the influence of mass transfer have been determined in a laboratory pipe section reactor (PSR), testing an old decommissioned metallic pipe. In total, 23 series of experiments were performed under different initial free chlorine concentrations and different hydraulic conditions. The applicability of different chlorine decay mathematical models has been investigated. A new model was proposed, combining zero order bulk reactions and first order wall reactions, describing the laboratory results with Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficients over 0.99. The obtained values for the wall reaction coefficient vary in the range 0.008–0.030 m/h, decreasing exponentially with increasing initial chlorine concentration.