Can anybody explain to me wat exactly stripping is?is stripping similar to distillation?

Question

do we have trays in stripping column?wat is the principle behind stripping....please help

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripping_%...

Stripping is a chemical separation process where one or more components are removed from a liquid stream by a vapor stream. In industrial applications the liquid and vapor streams can have concurrent or counter-current flows. Stripping is usually carried out in either a packed or trayed column.

Stripping works on the basis of mass transfer. The idea is to make the conditions favorable for the component, A, in the liquid phase to transfer to the vapor phase. This involves a gas-liquid interface that A must cross. The total amount of A that has moved across this boundary can be defined as the flux of A, NA.

I guess the difference is that distillation does the separation based on differing volatilities (like gasoline being more flammable than oil), whereas stripping separates based on mass transfer.

Answer 2

Stripping is the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from water by passing air through and/or over the water surface.  It is a process similar to sparging where clean air is passed through (bubbled) water(and over water in the case of stripping) .    The VOC's which have a greater affinity for air will be extracted from the water and collected in the air injected into the unit for treatment.    Air strippers are counter flow in that air and water pass each other in opposite directions.

An air stripper tower pumps water to the top where it is sprayed out. As the water rains down inside clean air is injected at the bottom of the tower and flows upward to the top of the tower.  As the air and water pass each other the volatile organics are drawn from the water into the upward flowing air.  The result is cleaner water at the bottom of the tower and dirty air at the top to the top. Air exits the tower at the top and contains the extracted volatiles, it is then directed into either an activated carbon filter or a catalytic oxidation (Cat/Ox)unit.   The filter or Cat/Ox clean the air of the extracted organics and discharge teh clean air to the atmosphere.

The tower is an early technology and as its name suggests is a tall tower 20 to 40 feet tall and several feet in diameter.   There is material in the tower to enhance the efficiency of the stripping process.( Either Trays or Packing)

Packing is typically a hollow plastic ball several inches in diameter. The purpose of packing is to increase the surface area the water raining down has available to it. Increasing the surface area allows greater contact with the air making it easier to extract the VOC   from the water. Packing also slows the rate of decent the water makes through the tower increasing its contact time with the air futher increasing stripping efficiency

In my experience trays are used in low profile air strippers  which are much smaller in physical size than a tower.   Trays could be installed in a tower but I have not seen any installed in an environmental application.

Trays are installed in several levels and again dirty water enters the top and cleaned water collects at teh bottom. The trays  carry the water in a zig zag path from one end of teh tray to the other where a hole lets teh water drop to the next tray level.      The trays are also perforated with small holes which allows clean air injected from the bottom to bubble up through the water layers in eact tray.  Again the dirty air is collected at the top to teh unit and processed.

Answer 3

I would think that depends on what you're talking about.  Stripping can be removing clothes for entertainment, it can be removing the insulation covering on electrical wires, or the cladding on optical fiber, or removing varnish from wood, or I'd imagine any number of other things.