Application of a packed column air stripper in the removal of volatile organic compounds from wastewater

Addressing environmental degradation andensuring environmental sustainability are inextricablylinked to all methods of reducing volatile organic com-pounds (VOCs) from the environment. A packed column airstripper is a typical example of such technologies for theremoval of VOCs from polluted water. The present reviewis devoted to the applications of a packed column air strip-per and, in comparison with previous reviews, presentsfurther elaborations and new information on topics suchas modeling and simulation of the dynamic behavior ofthe air stripping process in a packed column air stripper.The paper observed that a knowledge gap still exists in thesynthesis of this knowledge to formulate practically appli-cable mathematical relationships to describe the processgenerally. Therefore, further researches are still requiredin the area of air stripper performance optimization, par-ticularly in the development of a mathematical modeland the optimization of an air stripper using a statisti-cal experimental design method. Such a determinationis critical to the understanding of the interactive effect ofprocess variables such as temperature, air-to-water (A/W)ratio, and height of packing on air stripper performance.