Wet air oxidation of desizing wastewater from the textile industry

Wet air oxidation (WAO) was applied to treat the desizing wastewater from n atural and manmade fiber processing in a 2-L autoclave reactor. The range o f operating temperatures examined was between 150 and 290 degrees C. The pa rtial pressure of oxygen ranged from 0.375 to 2.25 MPa at a reference tempe rature of 25 degrees C. Variations in chemical oxygen demand (COD) and tota l organic carbon were monitored during each experiment and used to evaluate the performance of the reaction process. Experimental results showed that WAO is an efficient method for the treatment of desizing wastewater. A high er COD removal was achieved under gentler reaction conditions with the aid of a catalyst. A two-parameter mathematical model involving a fast reaction and a slow reaction was used to describe the WAO reaction kinetics and to calculate the reaction activation energies.