Interactive Effect of Air-Water Ratio and Temperature on the Air Stripping of Benzene

Abstract

High cost of pilot scale studies has led engineers to use simulation to study the factors that affect process performance. This study focuses on the interactive effect of air water ratio and temperature on the removal of volatile organic compounds from polluted water using packed column air stripper taking benzene as a case study. The process governing equations developed based on two-film model of mass transfer were solved using MATLAB and a surface response plot was done. The mass transfer coefficient increased from 0.1237x10-5 to 0.1932x10-5 s-1 as the temperature was raised from 293 to 323 K. Also, the Henry’s constant increased from 228.59 to 883.36 K as the temperature was raised from 293 to 323 K. Benzene removal efficiencies of over 99% were obtained for all combinations of temperature and air-water ratio. The result also indicated that air stripping of benzene from wastewater is most dependent on temperature and moderately on air-water ratio.

Keywords

• Interactive effect
• air-water ratio
• temperature
• volatile organic compounds