REMOVAL OF VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS FROM GROUNDWATER USING A ROTARY AIR STRIPPER

The performance of a centrifugal vapor-liquid contactor was evaluated for air stripping of jet fuel components from groundwater. Hydraulic test data indicated that the Sherwood flooding correlation, which has been proposed for use in designing centrifugal vapor-liquid contactors, overestimates the rotational speeds at which flooding occurs. A concept of the area of a transfer unit (ATU) was introduced in the mass-transfer tests to account for the change in fluid loading with the radius of the packing torus. A new correlation based on the specific surface area of the packing for predicting ATU described the experimental data with a fair degree of accuracy. The power consumed in rotating the packing torus was found to depend mainly on the liquid flow, outer rotor radius, and rotational speed. Previous claims in the literature that the centrifugal vapor-liquid contactor is resistant to fouling because of high shear forces were not found to be valid for groundwater with high iron content.