Influence of mass transfer and chemical reaction on ozonation of azo dyes.

Azo dyes can be only mineralised by chemical oxidation. In this paper the oxidation of Reactive Black 5 (RB 5) and Reactive Orange 96 (RO 96) with concentrations between 35 and 5,700 mgL(-1) (RB 5) and between 20 and 2,050 mgL(-1) (RO 96) was investigated in a lab-scale bubble column. The reactor was modelled for two cases, a completely mixed and a plug flow gas phase. The oxidation rate was influenced by mass transfer for all dye concentrations used. For low dye concentrations mass transfer alone was decisive for the reaction rate showing no enhancement due to chemical reaction, E approximately equal to 1. However, in the region of high dye concentrations, the slope of the ozone concentration profile inside the liquid boundary layer increases more and more with increasing dye concentration as a result of a chemical oxidation. Therefore, the enhancement factor depends on the type and concentration of the azo dyes. For RB 5, a diazo dye, an enhancement factor of E = 5.5 was observed for cd = 2,000 mgL(-1), RO 96, a mono azo dye, with a remarkably higher chemical oxidation rate shows an E = 16 for cd = 2,050 mgL(-1).