Process and apparatus for continuously treating sewage wastewater by

Abstract

An improved process and apparatus for continuously treating sewage wastewater by chemical oxidation of the contaminates and characterized by a high degree of oxygen absorption and utilization. An enclosed vessel continuously receives liquid wastewater at one end thereof to define a liquid level and the treated sewage is continuously removed from the other end to maintain the liquid level. Oxygen gas in the form of a mixture of O.sub.2 and O.sub.3 is introduced under pressure into the vessel, while pressurizing the vessel and creating an oxygen-rich atmosphere in an upper portion of the vessel, to chemically treat the wastewater through absorption of the oxygen by the wastewater. The wastewater is circulated from the lower portion of the vessel through the oxygen-rich atmosphere and directed in a stream against a driven rotating impeller for breaking the wastewater into a myriad of small particles and forcibly impelling the particles downwardly through the oxygen-rich atmosphere to strike the upper surface of the wastewater in the vessel and create a turbulent zone at the upper surface of the wastewater to increase oxygen absorption. The wastewater is hydraulically mixed by a helical flow of the wastewater created through the lower portion of the vessel from the one end to the other for further changing the interface between the wastewater and the oxygen to increase wastewater absorption.