Abstract

Ozone oxidation combined with activated carbon adsorption (O 3/AC) has recently started to be developed as a single process for water and wastewater treatment. While a number of aspects of aqueous ozone decomposition are well understood, the importance and relationship between aqueous ozone decomposition and organic contaminant degradation in the presence of activated carbon is still not clear. This study focuses on determining the contribution of homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions to organic contaminants removal in O 3/AC system. Benzothiazole (BT) was selected as a target organic pollutant due to its environmental concern. A reactor system based on a differential circular flow reactor composed by a 19 cm 3 activated carbon fixed bed column and 1 dm 3 storage tank was used. Ozone was produced from pure and dry oxygen using an Ozocav ozone generator rated at 5 g O 3 h -1. Experimental results show that BT removal rate was proportional to activated carbon dosage. Activated carbon surface contribution to BT oxidation reactions with ozone, increased with pH in absence of radical scavengers. The radical reaction contribution within the pH range 2-11 accounted for 67-83% for BT removal in O 3/AC simultaneous treatment. Results suggest that at pH higher than the pH of the point of zero charge of the activated carbon dissociated acid groups such as carboxylic acid anhydrides and carboxylic acids present on activated carbon surface could be responsible for the observed increase in the ozone decomposition reaction rate. A simplified mechanism and a kinetic scheme representing the contribution of homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions on BT ozonation in the presence of activated carbon is proposed. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.