Sonochemical degradation of organic compounds

Abstract

Advanced oxidation processes (AOP) are proven to be very effective for removing low concentration organic pollutants from various waste streams. Sonochemical degradation which combines destruction of the target compounds by free radical reaction and thermal cleavage is one of the recent AOP processes. This work describes the degradation of aqueous solution of several organic compounds of varying volatility in two types of ultrasonic reactors. The process variables studied include initial concentrations, temperature, and type of saturated gas. The effects of additional oxidant and electrolyte were also examined. A kinetic model was tested to determine its ability to predict the degradation rate constant of different volatile organic compounds at different initial conditions. A normalizatoin factor for the electrical energy consumption for the two types of ultrasonic reactors is also presented.