Hydrodynamics and recovered papers deinking in an ozone flotation column

This work was aimed at investigating the potential use of ozone flotation for recovered papers deinking. The mixing characteristics and the bubble size of a Venturi aerated laboratory flotation column were studied in the presence of simplified model systems and of an industrial pulp slurry. Experimental results showed that surfactants dissolved in the pulp slurry stabilized air bubbles while cellulose fibers promoted coalescence. Moreover, bubble buoyancy was sufficient to fluidize the fiber suspension generating perfect mixing. The gas–liquid transfer coefficient of ozone (kLa) estimated from gas hold-up, air bubble size and kLa measured in water was high enough (0.84 1/s) for the complete transfer of ozone in the pulp slurry and the generation of ozone-free gas effluent. With O3 dosage of 0.8 mg O3/mg COD, ozone flotation allowed increasing chemical oxygen demand removal from 41 to 63% with no effect on the ink flotation efficiency, which remained close to that obtained with air flotation, i.e. ∼92%.