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Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received March 21, 2003
Accepted November 18, 2003

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Improvement in Steam Stripping of Sour Water through an Industrial-Scale Simulation

Seong-Young Lee Jong-Min Lee Dongkwon Lee In-Beum Lee^†

Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31 Hyoja-Dong, Pohang 790-784, Korea

iblee@postech.ac.kr

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, May 2004, 21(3), 549-555(7), 10.1007/BF02705486

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Abstract

Sour water containing hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, and ammonia is mainly purified by steam stripping. Increased concern in recent times over effluent water quality and energy saving has caused sour water stripping to attract considerable attention. However, the development of the operation methodology and structure of this process has not been systemic, leading to inefficiencies in the systems commonly used. In this paper, the characteristics of a sour water stripping column are investigated by using an industrial-scale simulation. From these_x000D_ results, we propose several guidelines (high feed temperature, low composition of CO₂ in the feed, need of rectifying section, low mass flow rate of the second recycle stream, high reflux ratio, and modified structure using a pump-around side cooler) for improving stripper performance through changes in the operating condition and process structure. The proposed structure and guidelines can be applied not only to reduce steam consumption and lower the ammonia concentration in the effluent water but also to operate the system stably.

Keywords

Distillation Process Simulation Electrolyte System Sour Water Steam Stripping

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