PROBABILISTIC EVALUATION OF PACKED-TOWER AERATION DESIGNS FOR VOC REMOVAL

The design of packed towers for the removal of volatile organic chemic als (VOCs) depends strongly on compound volatility and rates of mass t ransfer. Uncertainty in Henry's constant and mass transfer coefficient s greatly affects the predicted performance of completed packed-tower treatment systems. This research focuses on evaluating the reliability of packed-tower aeration designs by modeling Henry's constant and mas s transfer coefficients as random variables with established distribut ions using Monte Carlo simulation. A case study consisting of alternat ive designs to achieve a given required contaminant removal is present ed to show how design parameter uncertainty affects the predicted syst em performance and the cost of resulting designs. It was demonstrated that the probability of failure is an important design consideration i n addition to cost and that full consideration of design alternatives will include design parameters outside of those that offer a given det erministically predicted performance.