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AssigneeAir Products and Chemicals, Inc.
InventorsThomas Albert Johnson, Malee Leeaphon, John Edward Sawicki, Juan Jesus Burdeniuc
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A single step wet oxidation process for treating wastewaters containing organic species, with or without heteroatoms, and anions of strong acids, e.g. sulfate or phosphate ion, or cations of strong bases, e.g., sodium, potassium or calcium ions, and which may contain ammonium ion and/or nitrate ion in addition to added ammonium ion and/or nitrate ion was developed which on thermal treatment near the critical temperature of water removes substantially all the COD and nitrogen through conversion to water, carbon dioxide or carbonate species, nitrogen gas and small amounts of nitrous oxide. Key to the success of the process is the balancing of all reducing species with an equivalent amount of oxidizing species and the balancing of all strong acid anions with strong base cations. The former ensures good removal of organic species, ammonium ion and nitrate ion. The latter ensures maintaining the pH in the range of from 1.5 to 8 thus avoiding severe corrosion problems and regions of pH where rate of reaction of the oxidizing species with reducing species is slow.
In a process for the wet oxidation of waste streams containing organic contaminants and contaminated with sulfur or phosphorous containing compounds, organic or inorganic, or both, using ammonium nitrate or precursor thereof as the oxidizing agent under conditions wherein the carbon and nitrogen forms are determined and the oxidized and reduced forms of carbon and nitrogen balanced such that the carbon forms are converted to carbon dioxide and the nitrogen forms are converted to nitrogen at desirable levels, under elevated temperature and pressure conditions sufficient to maintain liquid phase conditions, the improvement which comprises:
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