Ceramic Membrane Aeration Aims to Improve the Efficiency of Converting Oxygen into Dissolved Oxygen in Electro-Fenton Systems: Experiments, Simulations, and Applications

The low oxygen utilization rate and hydrogen oxide yield are still troubling the application of the electro-Fenton system. A novel aeration process using ceramic membranes with an average pore size of 1 micron is proposed in the electro-Fenton system, which improves O2 mass transferability from the gas phase to the electrolyte in the liquid phase. Ceramic membrane aeration (CMA) can greatly increase the dissolved oxygen content in water from 11.3 to 38.0 mg/L within 30 min, which leads to sharply increased hydrogen peroxide in the electro-Fenton system. Computational fluid dynamics was used to simulate the ceramic membrane aeration, and the simulated values of dissolved oxygen were consistent with the experimental results. The hydrogen peroxide concentration of the ceramic membrane aeration can reach 130.0 mg/L at an oxygen flow of 20 mL/min. The mass transfer capacity of microbubbles produced by the ceramic membrane aeration to the liquid phase is up to 300 times that by bubble stone aeration. With a high oxygen utilization efficiency of 1.57%, ceramic membrane aeration provides a bright prospect for improving the efficiency of the electro-Fenton system in practical industrial applications.