Empirical determination and modeling of ozone mass transfer in a planar falling film reactor

Abstract This study explores the experimental determination of the mass transfer rate of ozone in a planar falling film reactor at a wavy-laminar flow regime and provides empirical models for predicting the liquid side mass transfer coefficient, K L , of ozone in the semi-batch and continuous processes. The obtained results show that increasing the superficial gas velocity, U G , and the liquid Reynolds number (60 ≤  Re L  ≤ 240) enhance the K L of ozone in both the semi-batch and continuous processes. While in the semi-batch process the U G has the predominant impact on the K L , in the continuous process the liquid Re L governs the mass transfer rate of ozone. Based on these findings, empirical models for predicting the K L as a function of Re L and U G in the semi-batch and continuous processes are developed. Comparing the experimental and the calculated K L values showed that the values calculated by the models match well ( R 2  > 0.99) with the experimental values.