The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Modeling the fate of volatile organic compounds in wastewater treatment facilities; implementation of volatilization models in envirocad
Author:	Chhahira, Vinita
View Online:	njit-etd1995-076 (xiii, 63 pages ~ 2.4 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Environmental Science
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Chemical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Petrides, Demetri P. (Committee chair) Armenante, Piero M. (Committee member) Farrauto, Robert J. (Committee member)
Date:	1995-05
Keywords:	Volatile organic compounds--Environmental aspects. Water--Purification--Organic compounds removal.
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments have identified wastewater treatment facilities as a major source of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. VOCs present in wastewater discharges affect the quality of receiving waters, while emissions to the air affect downwind populations. The primary mechanisms involved in VOC removal from a wastewater treatment facility are volatilization and stripping, biodegradation, and sorption to either suspended or biological solids. Although many models have been developed to predict the fate of VOCs in wastewater treatment facilities, no model completely predicts emissions for an entire wastewater treatment facility. The focus of this work is to incorporate appropriate models for volatilization into an environmental computer-aided design tool called EnviroCAD, which simulates several unit operations used for wastewater treatment. An example and sensitivity analysis illustrate the feasibility of using process simulators, such as EnviroCAD, to predict the fate of VOCs in wastewater treatment facilities under several operating conditions, as well as determine whether or not the facility is in violation of any environmental regulations regarding VOC emissions.