Pulp mill wastewater discharged from an aerated stabilization basin (ASB) of a kraft pulp mill was ozonated in an extra-coarse-bubble diffuser contactor. The ozonation process is dynamic. Therefore, modeling the reduction efficiencies of contaminants present in the pulp mill effluent and the ozone gas absorption process became more complex than the pure water situation. The ozonation-process-mitigated reduction of colour, absorbable organic halides (AOX), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total organic carbon (TOC) were examined. Ozone was more effective in reducing the colour and AOX than in reducing the COD and TOC. At an ozone dose (ΔΔO3) of 230 mg L1, the maximum reduction efficiencies of colour, AOX, COD, and TOC were 86, 44, 22, and 15%, respectively. Ozonation was also very effective in increasing the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) of the pulp mill effluent. The biochemical oxygen demand increased by about 320% at ΔΔO3 of 230 mg L1. Ozone gas absorption dynamics were investigated by continuous monitoring of the feed-gas and off-gas ozone concentrations and flowrates. Owing to the occurrence of rapid reactions between ozone and some contaminants in the liquid phase, the mass transfer process was enhanced by an enhancement factor, E. The application of the well-known two-film theory and the assumption that the ozone reactions followed pseudo-first-order irreversible kinetics, the overall mass transfer coefficient, kLa, and the enhancement factor, E, were determined as functions of ΔΔO3. The induced reductions of pulp mill effluent contaminants and ozone gas absorption dynamics were compared to those obtained in other ozonation systems to investigate the effects of contactor design, configuration, operating conditions, and scale on the performance of the ozonation process.
Key words: absorbable organic halides, chemical oxygen demand, colour, enhancement factor, mass transfer, ozonation process dynamics, total organic carbon.
