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 types of packings. The data for polypropylene Pall rings and Super Torus saddles are summarized in this paper for hydrophilized and nonhydrophilized versions of the packings. The reliability is tested by comparison of removal efficiency calculated by the procedure with that observed experimentally for stripping tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, trichloromethane, chlorobenzene, bromobenzene and benzene from water in pilot plant column packed with hydrophilized or nonhydrophilized PP Pall rings 25 mm. Differences between experimental and calculated values did not exceed 10%. Differences between experimental and calculated values reported in previous literature are discussed and possible reason for this discrepancy is given. Due to better wettability of hydrophilized packing, the mass transfer coefficients for this type of packing were higher by 65% compared with the nonhydrophilized ones.