This work is concerned with the air-strippable volatile organic fraction of industrial wastewaters. The primary purpose was to develop laboratory apparatus and procedures that may be employed to assess the desirability of air-stripping in cooling towers as a treatment operation for removal of a portion of the organics from industrial wastewater. The apparatus developed consists of a short packed (Intalox Saddle) section with liquid recirculation and single pass countercurrent air flow. Desorption is performed in the apparatus at 25C and ambient pressure conditions. Samples were representative of: poultry, metal, oil-field, canning, pharmaceutical, paper, food, fibers, petroleum refinery and petrochemical industries. BOD, COD, TOC and gas chromatographic analysis were employed with the experiments. Industrial wastewaters were found to contain a non-volatile organic fraction that remains in the aqueous phase and a volatile organic fraction that can be transferred to the air phase. The net result of the desorption experiments is that some industrial wastewaters can be effectively treated by air-stripping a sizeable portion of the dissolved organics. (Modified author abstract)

Report prepared by College of Enginering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas. "Project no. R-801876; program element 1BB037." Includes bibliographical references (pages 67-68).