Destruction of chlorinated organic solvents in a two-stage molten salt oxidation reactor system

The characteristics of molten salt oxidation (MSO) reactors for the destruction of chlorobenzene (C6H5Cl) and trichloroethylene (C2HCl3) were investigated. The influences of temperature, oxidizing air rate and gas residence time on the organic destruction reactions were investigated by both experimental and modeling studies. Various oxidation by-products such as C6H6, C6H5Cl, CCl4, C2H5CH3, CH2, C2H2, C2H4, CO and HCl were produced in the primary MSO reactor but these were substantially destroyed or collected in the secondary MSO reactor. The results of model predictions by using the CHEMKIN III program were generally in agreement with the experimental investigations. Both results suggested that an increase in the stoichiometric air rate from 50% to 150% does not increase the reaction rates significantly. However, it was found that a little increase in the temperature can considerably reduce the emission of carbon monoxide, which was found to be the only incomplete reaction product.