Ammonia and nitrite removal from sea water by ozonation

Ammonia and nitrite removal from sea water by ozonation was investigated. The rates of ammonia and nitrite removal were determined in terms of the pH, temperature, salinity and initial nitrite or ammonia concentration Both the ammonia and nitrite removal followed fairly well zero-order oxidation Kinetics. For the ammonia removal, the pH dependent activation energy and frequency factor were found to achieve a minimum around pH 8. These two parameters decreased with an increase in salinity because of the catalytic effects on ammonia removal by hypobromous add during ozonation. For the nitrite removal, the pH effect on the oxidation rate coefficient was relatively small when compared to that of ammonia removal, leading to a constant activation energy and frequency factor. The effect of salinity on the nitrite removal rate coefficient was also observed to be minimum. However, the nitrite removal rate coefficient appears to increase with increasing initial nitrite concentration in the sea water.