Jr. Ortiz-del Castillo et al., Design of steam-stripping columns for removal of volatile organic compounds from water using random and structured packings, IND ENG RES, 39(3), 2000, pp. 731-739
Mass-transfer data at different feed and steam rates, using structured and
random packings, have been collected to develop a model for the design or a
nalysis of packed columns for stripping of volatile organic compounds (VOCs
) from water. The steam-stripping experiments were conducted in a stainless
steel column of 0.245-m internal diameter, with 2.8 m of packed section. T
he packings used were Sulzer EX gauze structured packing, Mellapak 250Y str
uctured packing, 1-in. Flexirings, and 1-in. Flerrimax random packing. The
VOCs were chloroform (CH3Cl) and toluene (C7H8). The model considers the si
multaneous occurrence of mass transfer and hydraulic phenomena with the sam
e expressions for liquid and vapor mass-transfer coefficients and the same
expression for effective interfacial area with one constant for each packin
g. The average deviation for the measured and calculated volumetric mass-tr
ansfer coefficient and effective height of packing is 0.29 and 0.23, respec
tively.