Photoreactor design and CFD modelling of a UV/H2O2 process for distillery wastewater treatment

Abstract

AbstractA pseudo‐kinetic model for the treatment of a distillery wastewater by the ultraviolet irradiation and hydrogen peroxide process in a continuous tubular photoreactor is developed. There is a scarcity of information on modelling of organic degradation rates based on chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) in advanced oxidation technologies (AOTs). In this study, the COD and TOC are used as surrogate parameters to design a photoreactor instead of individual concentrations of species. The rate constants for the reaction between COD and TOC with hydroxyl radicals were determined to be 4.9 × 109 and 5.0 × 106 M−1 s−1, respectively. A laminar flow model was simulated to estimate the velocity and residence time of the medium in a cylindrical photoreactor. The model was validated by the experimental data published in the open literature for different concentrations of H2O2 (1, 10, and 100 mM), COD (589, 709, and 850 mg O2 L−1), and TOC (190, 200, and 192 mg C L−1). The optimal value of the inlet hydrogen peroxide concentration was predicted to be 400 mg L−1. Axial and radial concentration distributions of species in the photoreactor were also obtained. At different photoreactor radii (from 50 to 200 mm), the values of radial local volumetric rate of energy absorption (LVREA) were estimated. It was found that a higher LVREA was achieved in the photoreactor space at smaller radii. © 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering