Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO) has been identified as a good candidate for waste treatment by ONET Technologies. The great advantage of this technology is that the oxidative reaction of organic matter products carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen and the other compounds are oxidized to either mineral acids or oxides. The uncontrolled production of different salts and the corrosion, that take place in the SCWO vessel are the two principal obstacles limiting the industrial applications of this technique. The supercritical oxidation of organic compounds appears at temperatures and pressures higher than the critical point (i.e. for water 374°C-223 bar).
In these conditions water is completely miscible with organics and gases. Furthermore a high velocity of reactions is observed, due to the homogeneous medium at this high temperature. So the residence time in a vessel is very much reduced.
A continuous process treatment is conceivable. In this presentation we present our approach combining CFD Modelling and real tests with a pilot scale plant with four types of waste.