Niche for Steam Stripping in Treating Dilute SOC-Contaminated Waters

Abstract

As regulatory limits for contaminants in air and water become increasingly stringent, interest in steam stripping to remove synthetic organic compounds (SOCs) from industrial waters has increased. To identify situations in which steam stripping could be a cost-competitive option for treating waters contaminated with low concentrations ( <10 mg/L) of synthetic organic chemicals, the performance and cost of steam-stripping towers were modeled, and a range of hypothetical contaminated waters was examined. The cost of steam stripping was compared to that of air stripping, liquid-phase carbon adsorption, and air stripping with off-gas adsorption. Steam stripping was found to be a highly specialized treatment technology that will not frequently be cost-effective, but it does have a small niche in the environmental remediation market. Steam stripping is cost-effective when site-specific factors significantly reduce capital or operating costs, or when the target chemical is only marginally volatile, adsorbable, and biodegradable, effectively making all other conventional treatment methods more expensive.