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Illustrative WAO wastewater-treatment train

How to simulate wet air oxidation of phenolic wastewater

Liquid-phase oxidation of dissolved organics in wastewater by dissolved O2 at elevated temperature/pressure (kept liquid, not flashed to steam) -- a real, widely licensed generic technology (Zimpro and equivalents), not Linde-proprietary IP, so it's built directly from the real, exactly mass-balanced combustion reaction of a standard WAO test/design compound: phenol (C6H5OH + 7 O2 -> 6 CO2 + 3 H2O). Phenol is the compound most WAO literature uses as the reference organic for design/kinetic studies, not an arbitrary choice. Honesty note: the 95% phenol destruction used here is representative of published WAO performance at adequate severity, not a fitted rate law -- there is no cited kinetic model in this codebase for phenol WAO, so (matching the fixed-conversion-reactor posture used throughout this codebase when kinetics aren't available) this is a fixed-conversion reactor, not an Arrhenius rate expression.

Wastewater FEED
O2 FEED
Preheat
MIX
WAO Reactor
COOL
Offgas SEP
OFF GAS
Treated Water
  1. 1
    Open the ready-made model

    Open the "Wet air oxidation of phenolic wastewater" model in the MaximaLabs workspace — no install, no license. It loads live on the canvas, ready to edit and run.

  2. 2
    Confirm the thermodynamics

    This process is modeled with the PENG-ROBINSON property package over phenol, oxygen, water, co2 — already selected, so the phase equilibrium and enthalpy are physically consistent from the first run.

  3. 3
    Review the flowsheet

    The flowsheet chains 2× COOL, MIX, WAO Reactor, Offgas SEP. Every block is a real, solvable unit op you can reconfigure on the canvas.

  4. 4
    Run the simulation

    Click Run. The deterministic solver converges the material and energy balances (recycles included) and fills the live stream table — the AI never invents a number.

  5. 5
    Read the results and iterate

    Inspect the converged streams, tweak a spec, and re-run — or ask the AI copilot to explain a result or diagnose a failed solve in plain English.

What you'll build
Thermodynamics
PENG-ROBINSON
Components
phenol, oxygen, water, co2
Unit operations
2× COOLMIXWAO ReactorOffgas SEP
Open this model in the workspace

Opens live on the canvas — free, no install.

Explore the model & flowsheet

Frequently asked questions

What does the Wet air oxidation of phenolic wastewater model simulate?
Liquid-phase oxidation of dissolved organics in wastewater by dissolved O2 at elevated temperature/pressure (kept liquid, not flashed to steam) -- a real, widely licensed generic technology (Zimpro and equivalents), not Linde-proprietary IP, so it's built directly from the real, exactly mass-balanced combustion reaction of a standard WAO test/design compound: phenol (C6H5OH + 7 O2 -> 6 CO2 + 3 H2O). Phenol is the compound most WAO literature uses as the reference organic for design/kinetic studies, not an arbitrary choice. Honesty note: the 95% phenol destruction used here is representative of published WAO performance at adequate severity, not a fitted rate law -- there is no cited kinetic model in this codebase for phenol WAO, so (matching the fixed-conversion-reactor posture used throughout this codebase when kinetics aren't available) this is a fixed-conversion reactor, not an Arrhenius rate expression.
Which thermodynamic method does it use?
The PENG-ROBINSON property package, over phenol, oxygen, water, co2 — already selected. You can switch the method on the canvas before running.
Which unit operations are in the flowsheet?
It chains 2× COOL, MIX, WAO Reactor, Offgas SEP. Every block is a real, solvable unit operation you can reconfigure, add to, or remove.
Do I need to install software or buy a license?
No. Wet air oxidation of phenolic wastewater runs entirely in your browser on MaximaLabs — free, no install, no license. Open the model to load it live and run the deterministic solver.

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