Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds from Surfactant Solutions by Flash Vacuum Stripping in a Packed Column

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) am be removed from contaminated ground water and subsurface media by surfaclant-enhanced remediation processes. For the process to be economically competitive it is necessary to recover and reuse the surfactant from this concentrated solution. The VOC can be removed from this concentrated solution by flash vacuum stripping, leaving the surfactant solution for reuse. In this study, the flash vacuum stripping of trichloroethylene (TCE) from an anionic surfactant solution in a co-current packed column was studied under rough vacuum conditions. The presence of surfactants lead to a reduction in the overall liquid phase volumetric mass transfer coefficient (MTC) of 40 to 95%. depending on flow rate and surfactant concentration at 50°C and 16 kPa. At liquid loading rates of less than 13 cm³/cm²min, the MTC of TCE decreases rapidly with an increase in liquid loading rate, and at liquid loading rates above that, the MTC decreases slightly with an increase in the liquid loading rate. This trend may have been due to foaming. At surfactant concentrations above the critical micelle concentration, the effect of surfactant concentration was not significant at liquid loading rates less than 13 cm³/cm²min. However, beyond that rate, the MTC of TCE decreased drastically with an increase in surfactant concentration. The MTC of TCE increased with an increase in temperature. A large pressure drop (3 to 4 kPa/m) was observed across the packed bed due to foaming.