Benjamin L.

Blaney
Risk R e i u c t 'on
l
E l q h i n g Labmatory
U.S. hvironmerrta1 pratedion Agency
C i n c h t i , OH 45268

In the past five years the U. S. ~ n v i m m e n t dpratection Agency has

studied the effectiveness of steam stripping as a treatment technique for
removing organics f m aquwaste streams. RLis paper presents the data
obtained from field tests of steam strippers a t seven industrial faciliteis.
The effectiveness of steam s t r i p i n g for removing different types of organics
from wastamis discussed.
mMJmw

m ccanponerrts of the Hazardous

arid Solid Waste A " t s of 1984
provide incentives to industry to
reduce the organic conterrtof wastes.
This can be done using organic
removal treatment technologies, such
as steam striming. me he"ks
require that the U.S. "ental
Protection&p?cy (USEPA) develop
land disposal restrictions for
hazaxdous wastes. These restrictions are intenaea toprotedhuman
health and the envirorrment f m
releases of toxic ccarpxxlnds into the
groundwater or t o the a i r fmm land
disposal facilities. 'The restrictions inclwl& limitations on the
conoentration of hazardaus mnstituents in land disposedwastes. In
addition, the Amencbnerrts require
that emissions of volatile organics
fm hazardous waste treatment,
storage and disposal facilities
(TSDF) be reduced. Ehissiom

415

reductions are intendd t o minimize

the a i r pollution problems, such as
ozone formation, w h i c h result from
TSDF aperation.

W a s t e w a t e r s form a large percentage of the hazardous waste

streams generatd in the United
States. For example, in 1981, 13.7
billion gallons of the 14.6 billion
gallons, or 92%, of the hazardous
waste disposed of in the nation went
to deepwell injection or surface
i"ents disposal processes
that are typically used for liquid
wastes (1). O f the 398 million
gallons of solvent (i.e. FOO1-FOO5)
wastes disposed of in 1981, 266
million gallons, or 65%, w e r e
aqueous streams
with
less than 1% organics or solids (2).

The Agency is also studying

ways t o reduce emissions from indust r i a l and municipal wastewater
treatmnt facilities under the clean

AirAct. Sinceopenstoragetanks
and activated sludge and other
aerated treabnent processes are
cannrmly used for managaement of
organics in wastewaters, the patential exists for significant emis-

gradientbetweenthetwophases. In
steam stripping, live steam is used
asthegasphase.

mesteamboth

heats the liquid, which enhances the

rate of mass transfer, and carries
the volatilized canpounds away from
~

D, F a n d G i n t h i s p a p e r - s a n p l d
by the USEPA as part of this program.

Steam stripping can be perform& in the batch or continuous

A rnrmber of m t m e n t technollmde. In the batch process, waste
ogies have been used to remwe
is charged to a boiler and steam is
organics fmn wastewater streanrs.
injected diredly into the waste.
'Itlese include steam stripping, bio!ilE injection of live steam both
heats the waste to volatilize law
degradation, carfxn adsorption,
solvent extraction and chemical
boiling a p m e n b and creates
destruction techniques, such as
tllrmlence in the waste, thus
W/ozunation. Steam stripping
increasing the rate of volatilizaoffers several advarrtages over the
tion. ~gaseswhicharecondensed
ather available technologies. It
fmn a steam stripper w i l l contain
can be used to recarer the organics
water along w i t h the more volatile
separatedfmthestream. Itperorganic canponerrts of the waste in
forrns w e l l in " v i n g halogenated
the form of a two phase mixture.
aliphatics; carpxxlnds that are Mt
This mixture i s d B 2 a n t d a n d t h e
readily remwed by carfxn adsorption. organic cgnponent is drawn off for
And, i t d o e s ~ u s u d l l y r e q u i r e t h e reuseordisposal. Inacontinuous
solvent recovery steps inherent in
steam stripping column, as shown i n
solvent extradion. Forthese
Figure 1, waste flaws dawn a column
reazals, steam stripping is e x p e A 3 3
while steam flaws up. !ilE column is
toseeincreased use inwastewater
designed to p " t e heat transfer
cleanup.
fmnthesteamtothewaste,to
cause tllrmlence in the waste and to
lhis paper provides a wmmnazy
create a large waste surface area.
of the results fm seven field
All of these properties pmaote
tests that have been perform& by
transfer of volatile cmpwks f m
the USEPA to determine the effecthe waste to the gas phase. D i f f e r tiveness of steam strim being
ent liquid-vapor equilibria exist i n
used for wastewater treatment a t
the m l m , w i t h the highest relaindustrial facilities.
results
tive concentration of the mDst
de"&rate the w i d e variety of
volatile
faund a t the
organic ccmpaunds which Ulis techtap. me separation of different
nology can efficiently
fmn
volatile constituents may be enaqueous waste stmams.
hancedbymfluxingaportionof the
axdensate.

Steam Striming

steam stripping is generally

Stripping is a physical separation u n i t aperation in which dissolved caaparnds are transferred
fmn a liquid into the gas phase.
me driving fonm for mass transfer
is pruvided by the commtration

used to separate insoluble or

slightly soluble ccanpaunds f m
water. lllesecanpoundsat-ereadily

strim because they have a large

a i r to water equilibrium coefficient
which increases as the tenpemtllre
416

417

aJ

.r

v)

I-'

of the waste is raised by the steam.

~n
additim, a high perentage of
.themass of the solvent in the
densate w i l l be in the organic phase;
only a small portion of the strim
organics are left in the ccprlensed
steam (4).

requires a steam stripping u n i t that

is wersized to handle the
additional load.

FmcEss

DEsFuPrIw

Table 1 provides generdl steam

stripper pmcess information for
each of the seven plants sampled by
the USEPA. Note that the waste
stream being strim a t these
facilities are not necessarily
classified as R a a hazardovs wastes.

!l%aqueausphaseofasteam
s t r i p ' s amlensate must be disposed of, however, and this require
merit must be carefully ccosidered in
deciding whether stripping is an
appropriate recycling technique. I n
a few instances, the small a"t of
water need not be separated f"
the
ompnic phase and the entire condensate can be recycled (5). Generally, h-er,
the aqluecxls condensate must be treated to a point
Mere it can meet permit ccalitions
upon dischaqe to either surface
waters or a municipal sewer. While
this can be accanplishea thmiyh a
sepa?ate p?mcess, the pmblem is
usually handled by recycling the
aquecus c " a t e to the influent
stream of the stripper. "his

Bath Plant A and B manufacture

m"&m chlorinated solvents.
A t Plant A, the s t e a m s t r i p is
used to treatwastewater generated
f"
the proauction of methylene
chloride, carbon tetrachloride and
chlorofonn. ?he wastewater a t this
plant ccolsists of equipment wash
w a t e r and rainfall collected from
diked areas around the plant. Wastewater is pretreaw for removal of
solids and any innniscible organic
phase in a decanter prior t o strip-

Table 1. selected steam stripper aperating parameters.

Plant
Identifier

NA

Wastewater Flaw
R a t e fl/min)

Volatile 0 r p n . i ~
LoaainCr Rate f k d1)

Feed/SRatio Ilcdkq)

41.5

14.6

9.6

21.0

4.6

10.5

852

292

28.8

2,390

286

NA

499

19.0

14.7

110

5.29

7.1

30.5

0.395

1.4

- Not available.
418

ping. lbe stripper wluum is packed

w i t h 2.5 ~m (l-inczl) saddle and
pmcesses 42 l/min (11 gpn) "he
stripper effluent, after cooling by
a heat exchanger, enters a holding
tank. I f the organics andlysis of
this e f f l u . + EetS "s discharge
limits, it is pH adjusted and disfrom
charged to a river. " a t e
stripping is @mse separated i n a
decanter. Theaqueousphaseis
returned to stripper feed holding
tank and the organic @mse is
recycled to the manufacturing
Process (5).

Facility B is a chemical manufacturing plant which prcducs a

numberof chemical htemedl'ates
that are used by the cosnetics,
chemical and agricultural industries.
T h e facility operates several processes including a methyl chloride
steam stripping process. Ihe waste
routed to tkis steam stripper amsists of methylene chloride, water,
salt and organic residue. F e d is
prmped fran storage tanks thrcugh a
preheat exchanger to the top of the
stripper a t approxinntely 20 l/min
(5 gpn). %e stripping tmer is 20
Cm (8-inches) in diameter and contains 3.3 meters (10 feet) of 1.6 can
(5/8-inch) Pall rings. Ihe treated
effluent flaws through a heat exchanger and ultimtely to the local
pblicly-ownd treatment works
(p[7Iw).
Ihe overhead vapors are
liquified i n a water-cmled condenser and separated by gravity i n a
decanter. Iheaqueausphaseis
recycled to the top of the stripping
c o l m while the lower layer of
methylene chloride is stored for
reuse (6)-

Plant C p r c x 3 . 1 ~1,2-dichloro~
ethane (E)
and vinyl chloride
"
E
I
- (VCM).
Wastewaters fran the
EDC/vcM proauction operation and
fran other parts of the plant,
including stom water runoff, are

treateabysteamstriwing. lbe
feed rate to the s t r i p is i n the
range of 760 to 950 l/min (200-250
gpn). 'Ihere is no pretreatmnt of
this stream and the f e d stream contained 1.4 g/1 filterable solids
d u r k USEPA field tests. As a consequence, the w l m amtains trays
insteadofpackingandbaththe
c o l and
~ heat exchangers m u s t be
baclayasheapericdically. The
effluent fmm the steam s t r i p
passesthrcughaheatexchangerand
is then serrt to a wastewater treatment system for txeabsnt of residual, " v o l a t i l e organics. Ihe
condensate could be phase separated
by decanting, kut a t this facility
the c c s r p ~ l e t eaqueDus/organic mixture
is recycled directly to the iranufacturing Process (5)

Plant D is a chemical m u f a c turing facility prcducing

chlorhtedh-ns.
Steam
s t r i m treat wastewater generated
by varicus chlorinatd hydrocarbon
prcduction u n i t s operated a t the
facility. scrubber blcw d m
streams, aqueous reactor equipnent
stream and pad water are collected
frcan arcund the facility and pumped
to settling tanks prior to stripping.
Ihe one exception is wastewater from
the VCM prcduction unit which is
prmpedy t o t h e s t r i p p e r . In
the settling tanks insoluble
O I y a n i C s are separated frcm the
aquecxls stream, which is then fed to
thestrippers. Totalsuspended
solids c " t i o n s
i n the feed
w e r e law, ranging from 6.4 t o 65.6
m g l over three days. ?tJo wastewater strippers operated i n parallel
are used for treatmnt and waste
wlmtion as NPDES treatment units.
Approximately 2,400 l/lnb (650 g p )
of wastewater enter the s t r i p .
Plant E is an explosives mfacturing plant w i t h pmcess wastewater streanrs that are preacaniMtely

419

redwaterandwhitewater.

nlese

charged thmugh the plant's process

sewer to the plant's on-site wastewater treatment plant.

-Passthmugh--

the oils are separated fran the process. ' I h e r e i s n o a t h e r p ~ t ment of the stream and 6aoe fouling
of the feed preheater results,
althOU$lplantpSEWUldrep0 rted
less than one percent dawn time for
theunit. Ihesteamstripperis
packed w i t h 2.5 an (l-inczl) diameter
stainless steel rings and had a feed
rate of -My
500 l/min during USEPA tests. "he effluent fran
the steam s t r i p passes through a
heat exchanger and then through one
of two carbon adsorptionbeds. Ihe
carbon served as a polishirq step
remwing residual organics fran the
wastestream. -pHadjustment,
the effluent stream is discharged to
a r i v e r . Thecondensate isphase
separatedinadecanter. 'Ihe
aqueaus phase is returned to the
s t r i p feed tank, while the
organicphaseisrcutedtoan
organics slop sunp (5).
Plant F is a chemical manufacturing facility which uses steam
stripping for t r e a t m m t and material
reclamation fran wastewater streams

SenerateabY-p'on units
inoneprocessareaoftheplant.
"bluene is the principal canpound
beingrecovered. w a s t e m a r e
pretreated by either a primary
decanter (for toluene remaVal) or an
evaporator (for solids thickenirq)
and then flow to the steam stripper
feed decanter where additianal separation of insoluble organics is
obtained. 'Ifaeflowratetothe
steam stripgw is 60 to 150 l/min
(15-40 gpn) Total suspended solids
concerrtration ranged fran nondetedable (<4.0 Wl) to 8.5 q/l wing
USEPA field tests. Ihe column is
2.5 feet in dimter and contains 20
sieve trays. Ihe c o " a t e fran
the f i r s t stage ar&nser is

recycledtothefeeddecanter.
steam s t r i p bottonr; are dis-

me

Plant G is an agricultural
chmical manufactwing facility.
'Ihe primary saurceof wastewater
for t h i s plant's water layer steam

s t r i p is a jet collection system

which is used to piil a vacuum on
varicus process refining stills and
r e a m ?sxwexystills. A scrubber

decant pot and p e r i d c reactor

contribute to wastewater
in the s t r i p feed. 'Ihe wastewaare pmped to a decanter tank
for liquid organics and sludge separation and removal. Flow rates to
the steam stripper averaged 31 l/min
(8 gpn) during the test perid.
Total suspended solids content of
the feed for this s t r i p was not
d t o r e d . Ihe stripper colunm is
60 inches in d i e and contains
14 G l i t s c h valve trays spaced one
footapart. Nitrogenisusedto
maintain the colmm pressure a t 5
pcxndspersquare~.
ov~arepmpedbacktothejet
collection pot. 'Ihe s t r i p
effluent is discharged thrcqh the
facility's process sewer to the
wastewater treatment plant.
washes also

Table 2 presents perfonrance

data for each of the 7 strippers
discxlssedabove. Resultsarebased
on one of three days of collecting
data a t each facility.

me perfonrance data demonstrates that contirnuxls steam stripping achieves efficient (>95%)
remval for a range of cmpmmis,
typically yielding a " t i c n s
of
individual carpwxlnds of less than
1.0 ppn. (An exception, Plant E,
fcmfi it more &-effective
to
achieve these levels by a canbira-

420

Table 2.

Steam

s t r i m organic removal effectiveness.

Inlet

ccncentration
pollutant

lxlIw

Cutlet

c3"tiOn
lxmw

IlmaVal
wt. %

Plant A

chlorcmethane
Methylene chloride

Chlorofann
C a r b n tetrachloride

Trichlomethylene
1,1,2-TrichlorOethane
TotalMc

Plant B
Methylene chloride

chloroform
cat-bon Tetrachloride
TotalMc

33
4,490
1,270
55
5.6
5.3
5,860

<O .005

<O

.005
<O. 005
<O. 005
<O. 037

>99.98
>99.999
>99.999
>99.99
>99.9
>99.9
>99.999

3,600
52
<2.3
3 ,654

<0.19
5.3
<O. 17
<5.6

>99.99
89
>92
>99.8

5,630
271
0.27
1.7
0.38
9.6
11
4.7
8.9
1.2
1.4
7.5
4.8
8.4
5,960

0.097
9.6
<0.01
<o 01
<0.01
<0.01
<0.01
<0.01
<0.01
<0.01
<0.01
<0.01
<0.01
<0.01
<9.8

99.998
96.4
>96
>99.4
>97
>99.89
>99.91
>99.8
>99.8
>99.1
>99.2
>99.8
>99.7
>99.8
>99.8

25.4
61.7
68.5
181
974
44.6
45.0
156

<0.041
<O. 045
<O .227
1.75
2.15
<O .051
<O. 078
0.188

>99.84
>99.93
>99.67
99.03
99.78
>99.89
>99.83
99.88

.
<O .006

<o 011

Plant c
1,2-Dichloroethane
aiLorofom
Benzene
carbon tetrachloride
aiL0-ene
C h l o e

1,1-Dichlo"m
1,I-DichlOroethene
1,2-Dichlo"Ie
Methylene chloride
Tetra-chlOlX&helW

1,1,2-Tri&lomethane
Trichloroethene
vinyl chloride
TatalMc

Plant D
1,l-Dichlo"
1,l-Dichloroethsure
tranS-l,2-Dichlomethane

chlomfom
1,2-Dichl1,1,1-Trichlomethane
Trichl1,1,2-TrichlorOethane

421

(continues)

Table 2.

Inlet
Commtxation
maw

m11Utarrt

outlet
c"tion
lxnw

Remwal
wt. %

P l a n t D -(

Tetrachloroethene

Totalvo

162
1994

<O .171
4.90

>99.89
99.75

Plant E

Nitrabenzene
2-Nitrdml4-Nitmtoluene
TatalMc

505
78
51
634

41.0
2.4
4.4
47.8

(<0.8)a

(<0.8)
(<O. 8 )

(<2.4)

91.8
96.9
91.4
92.4

(>99.8) a
p98.9)
(>98.4)
(>99.6)

Plant F

Benzene
chlorobenzene
lI2-DichlOrabenzene
1,3-DichlOrObenzene
1,4-DiChlOrabenzene
Eulylbenzene
Toluene
*Xylene
M-xylene
P-xylene

Totalvo

1.84
1.47
3.04
3.51
3.29
2.45
779
1.00
1.53
1.00
798

0.0020
0.003
0.005
0.002
0.003
0.002
0.283
0.002
0.002
0.002
0.305

99.89
99.80
99.84
99.94
99.92
99.92
99.96
99.80
99.87
99.80
99.96

Plant G

Benzene
Toluene

m y 1 Benzene
Isaphorone

Naphthalene

5-ml-1
2-l4ethylpyridine
,
1,2 ,3 , 4 - T e t x a h ~ p h t h a l e n e

2-Methyl-1 3-cyClopentanedicne
Total cnt3anics

5.06
1.07
1.46
1.04
12.0
96.4
76.7
9.91
12.1
225

0.012
0.007
0.005
0.026
0.026
9.18
0.789
0.127
0.127
10.3

99. 62b
98. 94b
99.44b
96. OZb
99. 66b
84. 54b
98. 33b

97.95

98.2
92. 45b

E, values shm in parentheses are effluent concentrations and

remwal efficiencies for the treatment of the influent stream by a
ccmbination s t e a m stripping follwed by carbon adsorption.
b
l p m ~ abased
l
on mass f l a w rates of organics in stripper influent
and effluent streams. Average flaw rates of influent and effluent streams
were 1,831 kg/hr and 2,973 kg/hr, respecitively.
a For P l a n t

422

-~

allow a 1-e
percentage of these
ccwpaunds to be separated by d m t ing fmn the aqueous condensate
prduced by the stripping process.
N i n e t y - f a r percent of the stripped
nitz&emene w a s removed frum the
&i.le we?-98% of the
nibmtoluene iscmers were remared.

tion of steam stripping and cabon

adsorption.) T h e f i r s t f m plants
weretreatingwastewaterstrearrs
c " t e d
w i t h halogenated ali@tics, w i t h irdividual ccPnpounrl
i n i t i a l amcentrations as high as

Law Constarrts, H, ranging fmn 4.3 x

10-4 to 1.2 x 10-2 atm-rn3/mle.

HalogeMted arcpnatics havirq similarly high H values were also
removed effectively, as shcwn by the
data presented for chlorcbnzene and
dichlorcbemene a t Plant F.

Plants E, F and G treat nonhalogenated arcpnatics, ketones and

ather canpcrunds which are more water
soluble and have lower Henry's Law
constarrts than the above halcgenated
organics. & x x l remcIval efficiencies
were also achiwed for these
pounds. m e n e , toluene, xylene
and ethyl benzene were removed w i t h
greatex than 99% efficiency, while
Mphulaland 1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene are remvel w i t h better
than 98% efficiency.

Plant E achieved gmater than

90% reduction of n i w e n e and
nitrotoluene using steam stripping,
w i t h overall removal efficiexies of
greater than 98% for these ccanpaunds
when carbon adsorption was used for
polishing. %e nitro gmup on the
arcanatic ring suppresses the Henry's
Law constant by aver an OrCTer of
magnitude for these c"fh compared to halcgenatd organics,
=Tiring
energy for their
removal. l h i s led Plant E to decide
to operate a treatnmt system which
utilized carbon adsorption for final
effluent polishing prior to discharge. Despite the relatively law
H value for these chemicals (2 to 7
x 10-5 atm-m3/mle) , steam stripping
is still practical since the law
solubility of nitrobenzene and +&e
nitrotoluenes, 1,900 mg/l and
apprimately 600 q/l, respectively,

423

steam stripping can achiwe

better than 95%removdl efficiemy
for a range of o d c ccanpounds
which are insoluble o r slightly
soluble i n water. Effluent COIXWtrations of less than 10 p p , and
for most ccwpounds less than 1 ppm,
can be obtained using steam stripping. mlishing of the steam
stripper effluent using carbon
adsorption m y be the mst costeffective means of achieving these
laJ concentratians for the less
volatile cmpm3s i n the group
rep?asented by these seven tests.
?he presence of solids i n wastewaters can foul steam strippers and
therefore it is generally advantageous to remove these solids before
stripping. Decanters are typically
used to achieve solids r e m o ~ and
l
caxamx&ly re"? any insoluble
0rganj.c~which w i l l also interfere
steam stripper qeration.

?he author w i s h e s to thank the

Air Quality Planning
andstandards (WE)
forproviding
data for three of the plants discussed i n t h i s paper.
WEPA Office of

REFERENCES

1.

U.S. Environmental protection

Agency, National Survey of
Hazarrlous Waste Generators and

gies for the kawery of

solvents fraa Hazardaus wastes.

5.

Allen, c., & &, case studles

+a

mentalprrrtecticnAgencyReport

% Volatile orsanics: VOl.

2, U.S. EnvR-otectian zlrgency Report No.

NO. EPA/600/2-86/095

EPA/600/2-87/CB4a.

(1986).

3.

Boegel, J.V., Air stripping and

steam stripping,
TreatE n t a n d Di
a I H. -I
Ed.,
l
* 1 (1988).

4.

Olexsey, R., &

6.

U.S. hvircarmental protection

&m=Y,
-Scale Hgganhs
Facilities: orsaniC
solvent wastes, U.S. Envinnl--mAgencyRePort,
IWIS No. PB89-138853.

d.,Technalo-

Disclaimer

This paper has been reviewed in accordance with the U.S. h v i m e n t a l

Protection Agency peer and adninistrative review policies and approved for
presentation and publication.

424