Ozone Mass Transfer Studies in a Hydrophobized Ceramic Membrane Contactor: Experiments and Analysis

Bubbleless ozone contact with water was carried out using a tubular hydrophobized a-Al2O3 membrane to investigate the feasibility of this process and, also, to evaluate the effect of liquid flow rate and the different experimental conditions on ozone transfer. The membrane contactor showed increased mass transfer fluxes of ozone, ranging from 4.8 × 10–8 to 2.5 × 10–7 mol/m2·s with increased liquid flow velocity. Specific ozone dosages, ranging from less than 0.1 up to 2.7 mg/L, were achieved by adjusting liquid flow velocity and ozone concentration in the gas phase. A mathematical model recognizing all the occurring phenomena and extracting physically the relevant parameters was developed. Specific ozone properties were calculated, under the tested experimental conditions, by properly fitting the experimental and theoretical data. This model also permits the further exploitation–extrapolation of data to different experimental devices and conditions by adopting from literature data, or by experimentally determining, the values of major ozone physical parameters, such as D, s, etc., affecting the modeling results.