Ammonia and nitrite removal from aqueous solution by Ozonation

Ammonia and nitrite removal from aqueous solution by ozonation in a packed bed reactor was investigated. The rates of ammonia and nitrite removal were determined in terms of the pH, temperature and initial nitrite or ammonia concentration. The ammonia removal was found to follow fairly well a first‐order oxidation kinetics with a constant activation energy to exponential pH‐dependant frequency factor. To the contrary, a zero‐order oxidation kinetics with constant activation energy and frequency factor described well the nitrite removal. The ammonia removal was found to increase quite significantly with an increase in pH. The pH effect on the nitrite removal, however, was minimum. The experimental results also indicated that the effect of initial ammonia concentration on the ammonia removal was not as strong as those of the pH and temperature. But the effect of initial nitrite concentration on the nitrite removal was rather significant. In all circumstances, ozonation was found capable of efficiently reducing the ammonia and nitrite concentration from the aqueous solution.