Studies on removal of phenol sulfonic acid-syntan in aqueous medium using ozonation.

The removal of phenol sulfonic acid-syntan (PSAS) in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was studied at different pH, ozone and initial PSAS concentrations and the optimum condition was found to be pH 7, ozone concentration of 5.2 × 10-3 mmol/L and initial PSAS concentration of 500 mg/L. The increase in BOD5/COD ratio confirmed the bio-treatability of ozonated PSAS effluent. The excitation-emission matrix intensity and Fourier transmission infra-red spectroscopy confirmed the generation of intermediate by-product during degradation of PSAS. The ozonation of PSAS was found to obey fast regime pseudo-first-order reaction with a rate constant of 3.7 × 10-9 mol-1 s-1. The mean oxidation state of carbon value between +2 and +3 confirmed that the ozonation of PSAS resulted in partial mineralization.