Air stripping of ammonia is a widely used process for the pretreatment of wastewater. Scaling and fouling on the packing surface in packed towers and a lower stripping efficiency are the two major problems in this process. New equipment that is suitable for the air stripping of wastewater with suspended solids has been developed. Air stripping of ammonia from water with Ca(OH)(2) was performed in the newly designed gas-liquid contactor, a water-sparged aerocyclone (WSA). WSA exhibited a higher air stripping efficiency and an excellent mass transfer performance, it also consumed less air compared with stripping tanks and packed towers. In addition, no scaling and fouling was observed in the inner structure of the WSA. During the stripping process, the stripping efficiency and mass transfer coefficient naturally increases with the liquid phase temperature and air flow rate. There is a critical value for the air flow rate over which stripping efficiency and the mass transfer coefficient increases rapidly. An efficient air stripping of ammonia should be conducted at a higher ambient temperature (>25 degrees C), and a higher air flow rate (>1.4l/s). (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.