Cascade air-stripping system for removal of low and semi-volatile organic contaminants

Miscellaneous · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5478442

Jang, Won

Many hazardous waste sites have been known to have groundwaters contaminated with low volatile, hazardous compounds such as bromoform 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane, 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP), napthalene, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In addition, a large number of public water supplies have been reported to have taste and odor problems in drinking water, which are attributed primarily to naturally occurring compounds, such as 2-methylisoborneol (MIB), geosmin, etc. These classes of compounds have very low Henry's Constant, H{sub c}, in the range of 1 to 50 atm. Air-stripping in countercurrent packed towers is a well accepted treatment process for removing volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) from water. The USEPA has identified packed countercurrent air-stripping as not only the least-cost, but also one of the best available technologies for the removal of VOCs. However, the economic viability of this process is limited to volatile compounds of H{sub c} value greater than SO atm. A novel modification of the conventional countercurrent air-stripping process, introduced as cascade air-stripping was proposed for cost effective removal of these classes of compounds from water and at hazardous waste spill-sites. The main objectives of this study were to demonstrate the concept of cascade air-stripping; to compare cascade air-stripping with conventional air-stripping under identical conditions; and to verify the hypothesis that the cascade system is superior to the conventional system at the pilot and prototype scales. Results of the pilot and prototype study showed that the cascade airstrip ping system was a viable and economical approach to remove low and semi-volatile organic compounds from water. The cascade system consistently showed higher removals than the conventional system for both pilot and prototype scale study.

• Research Organization: Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5478442
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CHLORINATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
MATERIALS RECOVERY
CHLORINATED AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
GROUND WATER
DECONTAMINATION
NAPHTHALENE
VOLATILE MATTER
WATER POLLUTION
AROMATICS
CLEANING
CONDENSED AROMATICS
HALOGENATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
HALOGENATED AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MANAGEMENT
MATTER
ORGANIC CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
PROCESSING
RECOVERY
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WATER
540320* - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)