The system needed to treat 300 gpm and remove 99.7% of the Benzene coming in.  While this performance is not out of the reach of some air strippers, the groundwater contains exceptionally high levels of chlorides along with iron and other minerals.   The engineer knew that the level of calcium, chlorides and iron would render any ordinary air stripper useless in a matter of days.

• Hardness: 869 mg/l
• Alkalinity: 518 mg/l
• Chloride: 320 mg/l
• TDS: 1320 mg/l
• TSS : 16.5 mg/l
• Calcium: 265 mg/l
• Iron: 3.3 mg/ l

Fortunately, they found the OxyStrip system from Theia. Theia’s OxyStrip system is the only air stripping system that can be used to treat virtually any water without fouling or clogging . . . ever.   The OxyStrip was chosen because, according to the engineer, it was the only system that could possibly stand up to the groundwater at the site.

In addition to the challenges of the water quality, the site had some other interesting challenges:

• Off gas: the customer and the engineer are committed to utilizing sustainable treatment methods.  Thus, they required that the ultimate destruction technology for the removed VOC be biological.  Theia worked with one of our channel partners to supply a biotrickling system to treat the off-gas from the air stripper
• Aesthetics: the customer wanted to minimize the amount of equipment as well as what was located above ground.  Theia provided a system which placed the stripping tank buried directly under the enclosure for the air stripping environment

The system was installed in January of 2016 and has been operating for over a year without issues.