Design of an automated fixed bed reactor used for a catalytic wet oxidation process

Treatment of polluted industrial wastes is one of the challenging research topics that occupy an important position in various chemical processes. Wet Air Oxidation (WAO) is one of the emerging processes suited for the treatment of special aqueous wastes. The system consists of an oxidation in the liquid phase of the organic matter by molecular oxygen at high temperature (200-325°C) and high pressure (up to 175 bar). It is an enclosed process with a limited interaction with the environment as opposed to incineration. In this paper, we will discuss the setup and the design of an automated fixed bed reactor used for wet oxidation of various types of wastes. The system is controlled by a set of intelligent sensor modules used for data acquisition. Regulation loops integrated within the sensor modules had been developed in order to control the gas flow, the reactor temperature and the liquid sampling part. The process supervision and monitoring had been achieved through the deployment of a SCADA software application. The graphical interface developed for this purpose monitors the major parts of the process.