Treatment of desizing wastewater containing poly(vinyl alcohol) by wet air oxidation

Guohua Chen, Lecheng Lei, Po Lock Yue, Peilin Cen

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The effectiveness of wet air oxidation (WAO) is studied in a 2-L autoclave for the treatment of desizing wastewater from man-made fiber textile plants. At an oxygen pressure of less than 2 MPa, over 30-min, chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was found to increase from 15 to 65% when the temperature was raised from 150 to 250 °C. The biodegradability of the wastewater was also simultaneously increased. Up to 90% of the COD could be removed within 120 min. A simplified reaction mechanism is proposed which involves a direct mineralization step in parallel with a step in which an intermediate is formed prior to mineralization. A kinetic model for COD removal was developed based on this reaction mechanism. The model was tested with experimental COD results over the temperature range of the experiments. The dependence of the specific reaction rate constants was found to follow the Arrhenius type of equation. The direct oxidation of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) to carbon dioxide and water is the dominant reaction step. The intermediates formed are not likely to be the acetic acid but may be short segments of PVA that are easily oxidized.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1193-1197
Number of pages5
JournalIndustrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
Volume39
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2000
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Chemical Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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