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Designing Steam Stripping Columns
Designing Steam Stripping Columns
Engineering Practice
I
n recent years, steam strippers removal of volatile organics is a strong with an incinerator or recycled back
have become integral parts of in- function of temperature. Steam strip- into the process. The purified water
dustrial plant operations. The goal ping allows for the removal of heavy that comes off the bottom of the col-
when designing these types of col- soluble organics that other stripping umn can be recycled back into the
umns is to have reliable operation for techniques (air stripping, for instance) plant’s water system.
as long as possible. This article details will not remove. Steam stripping in wastewater ser-
the methodology used when designing The typical arrangement of a steam- vice offers high VOC recovery (greater
steam strippers for wastewater ser- stripping tower is a column where the than 99%). The purified water at the
vice. An example of a steam-stripper liquid feed is introduced at the top of bottom of the column has very low
design is also presented. the column while steam is introduced contaminate concentrations [1].
at the bottom of the column. The
The basics wastewater feedstream is heated and Tower design
Steam stripping for wastewater puri- put in contact with steam in a packed When a steam-stripping column is
fication is a distillation process where or trayed tower (Figure 1). being designed it is necessary to set
light volatile organic compounds The combined effects of the steam the values for a complete set of inde-
(VOCs) are removed from water (the and heat cause organic material to pendent variables. The feed variables
heavier component). The VOCs pres- transfer from the liquid phase to the are normally already known; there-
ent in the feedstream to these types vapor phase. The steam-stripping fore, it is typically necessary to pick
of columns are usually in low concen- tower utilizes trays or packing inter- near-optimum values for the gas-to-
trations in comparison to the water nals to facilitate contact between the liquid ratio, column pressure, column
phase. The typical organics present contaminated water stream and the diameter, and the product purity. From
are as follows: steam stream. The volatile organic this set of independent variables, it is
• benzene material is then carried out with the possible to determine the number of
• toluene vapor. As contacting proceeds down theoretical stages needed to achieve
• xylenes (o, m and p) the column, the wastewater becomes the desired separation.
• ethyl benzene leaner with organic material while the
• styrene vapor phase becomes more enriched Feedstream
• chlorinated hydrocarbons with organic material as it travels up When designing a steam stripper, it
(This list may change depending on the column. is very importance for the designer to
the service.) The overhead organic vapor that have a complete understanding of the
Steam stripping takes place at high comes off the top of the column is con- chemistry of the feedstream. Incom-
temperatures that are usually very densed and recovered. The recovered plete knowledge about the feedstream
close to the boiling point of water. The hydrocarbons can either be treated can lead to an improper design of the
52 Chemical Engineering www.che.com May 2008
ample, the lower the operating pres- wastewater systems, the design of
sure the better the volatility achieved. the feed pre-heat system should
Lower operating pressures will also allow frequent cleaning. Typically,
result in lower operating tempera- a set of redundant exchangers is in-
tures. Stream strippers operating at stalled to allow for online cleaning of
vacuum can be highly efficient. Oper- pre-heat exchangers.
ating at vacuum pressures also allows
the use of plastic internals to combat Column design equations
the effects of corrosive systems [1]. The gas stream at any point in a strip-
The drawback of operating at vacuum per consists of the following param-
conditions is the added expense of the eters [3]:
operation and maintenance of vacuum
G – Total mol/(tower area)(time)
equipment (ejectors or pumps).
y – Mole fraction
Typically, most steam strippers are
A – Diffusing solute
designed at or near atmospheric oper-
p – Partial pressure
ating pressure. Operating at or near at-
pt – Total pressure
mospheric pressure allows the designer
GS – nondiffusing gas mol/(tower
to take advantage of higher volatilities
Figure 2. Shown here is a tray that area)(time)
has been damaged by temperature-in- and lower operating temperatures
Y – Mole ratio
duced corrosion without having the added expense of
operating vacuum equipment. The equations governing the rela-
column. It may also lead to operabil- However, if the column’s operat- tionship are as follows:
ity and maintenance problems. Some ing pressure is increased, there are y p
of the problems that can result from a some unfavorable effects, such as Y = = (1)
1 − y pt − p
poor understanding of feed composi- the following:
tion are as follows: • Raising the pressure increases the
G
• Incorrect material selection for in- solubility of the solute and increases ( )
GS = G ⋅ 1 − y =
1+Y
(2)
ternals and piping. This could lead the separation difficulty
to stress-corrosion cracking and • More steam input to the column is The liquid stream consists of L total
other forms of material attack (Fig- required to achieve the same sepa- mol/(tower area)(time). This stream
ure 2). The materials of construction ration efficiency contains the following parameters [3]:
must be chosen carefully due to the • Raising the column’s pressure may
x – mole fraction
dynamic nature of the composition induce organic salt precipitation
L – Total mol/(tower area)(time)
of most wastewater streams If the chosen column pressure causes
LS – Nonvolatile solvent mol/(tower
• Loss of operational capacity due to flashing of the feed liquid inside the
area)(time)
foaming tower, this effect must be accounted
X – Mole ratio
• Column fouling and plugging due to for in the design of the upper section
solid precipitation (salts, for example) internals in order to avoid overload- The equations governing the rela-
• Reduction in column efficiency be- ing and flooding near the top of the tionship for the liquid stream are as
cause of incorrect operational pa- tower [2]. follows:
rameter design. Specifically, using x
X = (3)
the wrong concentration of organic Column feed pre-heat 1− x
material to design the column could Preheating the feed before it is intro-
L
affect how much steam is used in duced into the column is important S ( )
L = L ⋅ 1 − x =
1+ X
(4)
the column. If the column is not de- because it reduces the amount of heat
signed with enough steam capacity, added to the column to achieve the
Equilibrium curve
there may not be enough heat to desired separation. The feed can be
During the design phase of a stripper,
drive off the saturated organics to heated in several different ways.
one of the first things that should be
the design point of the column • A heat recovery exchanger that cross
done is to collect accurate and reliable
The characteristics of the feedstream exchanges the feed with the effluent
equilibrium data. Thermodynamic
must first be determined before any coming off the bottom of the column
models are used to help determine the
design work begins. This includes any • A steam heat exchanger that cross
total number of transfer units and the
possible composition variations that exchanges the feed with a steam
height of each transfer unit [1].
might occur. stream
When designing steam strippers, a
• Depending on how much heat is
base line thermodynamic model that
Column pressure needed, it may be required to have a
can be used is Henry’s law:
The operating pressure of a steam combination of a recovery exchanger
y⋅ P = H ⋅ x (5)
stripper can influence the efficiency and a steam heat exchanger
and reliability of the column. For ex- Due to the fouling nature of most where
Chemical Engineering www.che.com May 2008 53
Engineering Practice
2.50E-05
Operating pressure (psig) 28 – 30
2.00E-05 Outlet water mass fraction 0.999067
5.00E-06
TABLE 3. Simulation results
0.00E+00
0.00E+00 1.00E-06 2.00E-06 3.00E-06 4.00E-06 5.00E-06 Design parameter Parameter
5.00E-07 1.50E-06 2.50E-06 3.50E-06 4.50E-06
.PMFTTPMVUFNPMFJOMJRVJE Total number of stages 5
Packed towers tower design is the distributors. Packed dynamic equation to use for steam
In order to calculate the overall height towers are more sensitive to poor liq- strippers is one that uses activity
of packing required for a tower design, uid and vapor distribution than tray coefficients that can predict immis-
you must first calculate the number of towers. Therefore, it is critical that cibility (non-ideal conditions).
transfer units in the liquid phase [6]. vapor and liquid enter packing evenly 3. The operating pressure of a steam
distributed. The performance of the stripper can influence the efficiency
packing depends heavily on the initial and reliability of the column.
vapor and liquid distribution entering 4. Trays in wastewater strippers usu-
the packing. Poor vapor and liquid dis- ally have tray efficiencies around 25
(10) tribution to a packed bed can result in to 40%.
a loss of efficiency [8]. 5. Preheating the feed before it is intro-
Z = NTU L ⋅ HTU L
(11) duced into the column is important
Tray towers because it reduces the amount of
NTUL – The number of liquid
Trays are the most commonly selected heat added to the column to achieve
transfer units
type of tower internal. Just like packed the desired separation. ■
HTUL = Height of liquid transfer unit
towers, vapor and liquid loadings are Edited by Gerald Ondrey
for packing, in. (usually pro-
an important consideration for tray
vided by the vendor)
towers. Generally trays perform well References
Z – Height of packing, in.
at high liquid and vapor loadings. At 1. Bravo L. J. Design Steam Strippers For Water
S – Stripping factor (mGm/Lm)
low flow parameters the capacity and Treatment, Chem. Eng. Prog., pp. 56–63, De-
m – Equilibrium curve slope cember 1994.
efficiency of trays can be reduced.
Gm – Gas-phase flow, lbmol/h 2. Perry, R. H., Green, D. W., Maloney, J. O. “Per-
Below are some other items to con-
Lm – Liquid-phase flow, lbmol/h ry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook,” 7th
sider when deciding to use trays in a ed.”, McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc., New
York, 1999.
In recent years, packed wastewater tower.
stripper towers have become very pop- • Is your application a fouling service? 3. Treybal, R. E. “Mass-Transfer Operations,”
3rd ed., McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc.,
ular. Random packing is the packing Usually, trays have downcomer ca- New York, Reissued 1987.
of choice for this type of service. Struc- pacity problems in heavy foaming 4. Zygula, T. M., Dautenhahn, “The Importance
ture packing is more efficient than services Of Thermodynamics on Process Simulation
Modeling,” AIChE Spring National Confer-
random packing, but is extremely sus- • Is your service highly corrosive? ence, March 2001, Houston, Texas.
ceptible to fouling. However, there are Trays have a high resistance to 5. Kolmetz, K., Zygula, T., Sloley, A., Ng, W.,
a few things to remember when trying corrosion if the correct material is Faessler, P., Design Guidelines Outline So-
lutions For Reducing Fouling In Distillation
to decide if packing is correct for your selected Columns, Oil and Gas Journal, pp. 60–64,
application. The vapor and liquid load- • Trays have higher pressure drop August 2004.
ings of the tower are important when than random packing does 6. Strigle, R. F. Jr. “Random Packings And
Packed Towers Design And Applications”,
considering packing. Generally this • Entrainment is an issue with trays. Gulf Publishing Company, Houston Texas,
type of column involves very high liq- Trays usually have more entrain- 1987.
uid loads and low vapor loads. ment than packings. Excessive en- 7. Zygula, T. M., Dautenhahn, P. C. Ph.D., P.E.
Some other items to consider when trainment can lead to efficiency loss “Use of Process Simulation for Distillation
Design” AIChE Spring National Conference,
deciding to use packing in a wastewa- • Excessive vapor and liquid maldis- March 2000, Atlanta, Georgia.
ter stripper are as follows: tribution can lead to a loss of effi- 8. Kister, H. Z. “Distillation Design”, McGraw-
• Is your application a fouling service? ciency in a tray tower Hill Book Company Inc., New York, 1992.
Usually, certain types of packings do When comparing trays to packing, it
not perform well in heavy fouling is always a good idea to get as much
applications information as possible about the in-
• Is your service highly corrosive? ternals being considered. The tray
Some types of packing are not good vendors are a good source of informa- Author
in a highly corrosive service tion. There are many publications on Timothy M. Zygula P.E. is
a principal process engineer
• Is pressure drop a major consid- the subject of distillation, for example with Flint Hills Resources,
eration? Random packing is a low Reference [8]. Talk with others in the (Flint Hills Resources, Poly-
mers, 2495 South Grand-
pressure drop device that provides industry to see what has been done be- view Ave., Odessa, TX 79766.
good efficiency. High pressure drop fore. Do as much research as possible Phone: 432-640-8531; Email:
timothy.zygula@fhr.com). He
in atmospheric and vacuum strip- before any decisions are made. has worked as senior process
engineer with Nova Chemicals
ping columns can effect the perfor- and Westlake Group for the
mance of the column. This is done Summary past nine years, and has also
served as a distillation specialist and a research
by affecting the temperature in the 1. It is very important that when de- and development engineer with Glitsch, Inc. He
bottom of the column signing a steam stripper that the de- is the author of numerous articles on the subject
of distillation. Zygula holds a M.S.Ch.E. degree
• Does the system you are modeling signer has a complete understanding from McNeese State University, and a B.S.Ch.
have foaming tendencies? [7] of the chemistry of the feedstream. E. degree from the University of South Florida.
He is a member of AIChE, and a licensed profes-
The most important part of a packed 2. Typically the best type of thermo- sional engineer in Louisiana.