DESIGN OF PACKED AERATION TOWERS TO STRIP VOLATILE ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS FROM WATER

The reliability of a design procedure for packed strippers of volatile organic contaminants (VOC) removal from water is tested. The required mass transfer coefficients for VOC are recalculated from oxygen mass transfer coefficients which are available in literature for various ty pes of packings. The data for polypropylene Pall rings and Super Torus saddles are summarized in this paper for hydrophilized and nonhydroph ilized versions of the packings. The reliability is tested by comparis on of removal efficiency calculated by the procedure with that observe d experimentally for stripping tetra-chloroethylene, trichloroethylene , trichloromethane, chlorobenzene, bromobenzene and benzene from water in pilot plant column packed with hydrophilized or nonhydrophilized P P Pall rings 25 mm. Differences between experimental and calculated va lues did not exceed 10%. Differences between experimental and calculat ed values reported in previous literature are discussed and possible r eason for this discrepancy is given. Due to better wettability of hydr ophilized packing, the mass transfer coefficients for this type of pac king were higher by 65% compared with the nonhydrophilized ones. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.