NICHE FOR STEAM STRIPPING IN TREATING DILUTE SOC-CONTAMINATED WATERS

As regulatory limits for contaminants in air and water become increasi ngly stringent, interest in steam stripping to remove synthetic organi c compounds (SOCs) from industrial waters has increased. To identify s ituations in which steam stripping could be a cost-competitive option for treating waters contaminated with low concentrations (<10 mg/L) of synthetic organic chemicals, the performance and cost of steam-stripp ing towers were modeled, and a range of hypothetical contaminated wate rs was examined. The cost of steam stripping was compared to that of a ir stripping, liquid-phase carbon adsorption, and air stripping with o ff-gas adsorption. Steam stripping was found to be a highly specialize d treatment technology that will not frequently be cost-effective, but it does have a small niche in the environmental remediation market. S team stripping is cost-effective when site-specific factors significan tly reduce capital or operating costs, or when the target chemical is only marginally volatile, adsorbable, and biodegradable, effectively m aking all other conventional treatment methods more expensive.