SELECTING AMONG PHYSICAL CHEMICAL PROCESSES FOR REMOVING SYNTHETIC ORGANICS FROM WATER/

A rational framework for selecting the least-cost treatment technology for aqueous organic wastes was developed by using performance and cos t models. The following three treatment options were evaluated for 15 different chemicals in this research: packed tower air stripping, pack ed tower air stripping followed by gas-phase adsorption (granular acti vated carbon) of off-gases, and liquid-phase adsorption (granular acti vated carbon). The least-cost air stripping tower design was found to change when off-gas treatment was added. Air stripping without off-gas treatment was determined to be less expensive than liquid-phase adsor ption in nearly every case. A methodology was created for comparing th e relative costs of liquid-phase adsorption and air stripping with gas -phase adsorption. The comparison methodology is based upon physical p arameters of the target chemical: Henry's constant and the solute dist ribution parameter. The result is a diagram for rapid identification o f cases for which one treatment option is significantly less expensive than the other.