Ozonation of Common Textile Auxiliaries

The treatability of four different commonly applied textile auxiliary chemicals, namely two tannin formulations (Tannin 1: a condensation product of aryl sulphonate; Tannin 2: natural tannic acid) and two biocidal finishing agents (Biocide 1: 2,4,4′-trichloro-2′-hydroxydiphenyl ether; Biocide 2: a nonionic diphenyl alkane derivative) with ozone was investigated. Increasing the ozone dose yielded higher COD removals for the natural tannin. Optimum ozone doses of 485 and 662 mg/h were obtained at a pH of 3.5 for natural and synthetic tannin carrying textile bath discharges, respectively. When the reaction pH was increased from 3.5 to 7.0, a slight decrease in COD removal was observed for the natural tannin due to ozone selectivity towards its polyaromatic structure. The same increase in ozonation pH enhanced COD removals for the synthetic tannin as a result of enhanced ozone decomposition rendering free radical chain reactions dominant. Optimum ozone doses of 499 and 563 mg/h were established for Biocide 1 and 2, respectively. With the increase of ozonation, pH exhibited a positive influence on COD removals for both textile tannins. A substantial improvement in terms of TOC removals was observed as the reaction pH was increased from 3.5 to 7.0 for the synthetic tannin, and from 7 to 12 for both textile biocides. Higher AOX removals were evident at pH 7 than at pH 12 for Biocide 1 as a result of the higher selectivity of the dehalogenation reaction at neutral pH.