Industrial Wastewater Treatment

J.D. Edwards

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781315894409
• eBook ISBN: 9781351090407
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Management
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Managing wastewater is a necessary task for small businesses and production facilities, as well as for large industrial firms. Industrial Wastewater Treatment: A Guidebook presents an approach to successful selection, development, implementation, and operation of industrial wastewater treatment systems for facilities of all sizes. It explains how to determine various properties about wastewater, including how it is generated, what its constituents are, whether it meets regulatory requirements, and whether or not it can be recycled. It describes methodologies for developing and maintaining a suitable treatment program, determined by the type of company under consideration. Examples of treatment systems which have been installed in various types of businesses over the past several years are presented in a manner that clearly illustrates successful treatment methods.

1 How To Use This Book

Introduction

Many businesses generate wastewater. Sometimes the wastewater must be treated before discharge to the sewer. How do you go about deciding if you need a wastewater treatment system? If you do need one, how do you put it in? There is more to wastewater treatment than installing a piece of equipment. It is important to understand if and why a treatment system is needed, and to be aware of your options, in order to select the type of system most compatible with your shop’s operations.

This book is intended to help those who are faced with putting in a wastewater treatment system and to explain the methodology to others concerned with industrial pretreatment. The approach presented in this book applies to the design and implementation of a treatment system of any size. Organized as a step-by-step guide, the chapter outline presented below provides a brief overview of the steps involved, from start to finish. Gloss over it now, and refer to it later, if you ever feel overwhelmed or uncertain about what comes next. Each of the chapters that follows amplifies one of the steps in the process. You may not need to read the entire book, depending on where you are in the process, but if you understand the basic steps and are systematic, you can be successful. Table 1 gives a overview of the process and indicates which chapters provide information about a particular topic.

Take an organized, objective approach to implementing your wastewater treatment system. Determine your wastewater management limitations and characterize your waste stream. Develop wastewater management alternatives and evaluate them. Select the best alternative and implement the wastewater treatment system, if you have to. For advice, help, and ideas, talk with others who have put in systems, work with vendors, read books and literature. Finally, meet with the agencies that regulate your facility before you invest a lot of time and money.

Table 1 How to Find Your Way Through This Book

Examples of three systems that were installed to treat relatively small discharges are given. They include treatment of oily and metal-bearing wastewater by evaporation or chemical precipitation. Both small and large facilities may be able to apply them directly to their situation. The small-scale examples are given because much of the available literature deals with the treatment of larger flows and large facilities. The processes, especially the chemical precipitation process, can readily be scaled up for larger flows.

Book Outline

Chapter 2: Characterizing Your Wastewater

This chapter explains how to determine how the waste is generated, how much is generated and what it contains. The waste stream must be characterized to determine if it will meet regulatory requirements, and to design a process which can effectively reduce, recycle, or treat the waste if it does not. If the waste is not adequately characterized, the chosen method of waste minimization, treatment, or disposal may not work at all.

At a minimum the following must be known: (1) rate of waste generation and waste volumes, and (2) contaminants and their concentrations, including pH, metals, and organics content.

Chapter 3: Determining Your Wastewater Management Limitations

You must know your limitations. Before you decide how to proceed with your wastewater problem, make sure you understand its nature. Perhaps the most important restriction is compliance with wastewater discharge limitations.

Chapter 3 summarizes the potential regulations, process concerns, and economic considerations that define the boundaries of wastewater management decisions. The characteristics of the waste must be compared to the discharge limitations (if the waste is to be sewered), the air pollution control requirements (if the waste is emitted to the atmosphere), or the disposal criteria (if the waste is to be landfilled or incinerated). If the waste is to be recycled it must be acceptable to the recycling company.

The following items must be considered:

Shop constraints

Your budget

Part quality requirements

Workflow requirements

Regulations pertaining to

Sewer discharge

Solid waste disposal

Hazardous waste disposal

Air pollution control

Industrial hygiene and safety

Recycler’s requirements

Treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSD) requirements

Chapter 4: Developing Wastewater Management Alternatives

Before building a treatment plant, you must be certain a treatment plant is the best alternative. Other alternatives should be identified. Can the waste stream be modified by a change in the industrial process? Would it be more cost effective to ship the waste offsite to a TSD for treatment?

If a wastewater treatment system is the most viable alternative, your next step is to identify the most applicable treatment technologies. Resources that can help you to determine what technologies are available are described. Many suppliers offer a variety of treatment equipment. Reference books, textbooks, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) manuals suggest an assortment of wastewater treatment methods.

The methodology used to develop wastewater management alternatives includes:

Changing the process to reduce or eliminate the waste stream

Segregating waste streams to reduce the volume of waste to handle and/or allow effective treatment

Identifying applicable technology Examine case studies Contact suppliers

Contact shops that produce wastes similar to yours

Use the library to find applicable articles

Use trade associations

Contact regulatory agencies for information

It is important to get an overview of the available technology. Having a variety of alternatives to compare and contrast can help you to make an informed decision. Every technology has its drawbacks. You need to be able to choose the one that benefits you the most.

Chapter 5: Evaluating the Alternatives

This chapter explains how to go about evaluating the identified wastewater management alternatives. Before making your selection:

Determine the reason for building the plant

Examine alternatives to building the plant

Visit other shops that have systems similar to yours

Bench test selected technologies

If needed, pilot test the most promising processes

Consider

Effectiveness and economics

Capital and operating costs

Space requirements

Is the equipment a good fit for the technical level of the shop personnel?

Reliability of the system

Flexibility of the system

Quality of technical support from vendor

Disposition of waste treatment residual

Compare costs and benefits of in-house treatment vs. sending the waste to an off-site treatment company

Do not rely on hearsay; check it out yourself

An ill-conceived treatment system may not work, may not be cost effective, may be a nightmare to run, or may look so bad that it does not gain the confidence of a visitor. Following the outlined steps will reduce the risk associated with putting in a wastewater treatment system.

Chapter 6: Selecting the Best Alternative

This chapter examines the selection of an appropriate wastewater management alternative based on the particular needs of your shop. It explains how to do a cost assessment and how to prepare a system design. You will probably want to choose the most cost-effective alternative which has the highest probability of keeping you in compliance with the regulations.

Chapter 7: Implementing the Wastewater Treatment System

This chapter takes you from the concept to the hardware on the shop floor. To implement the system the following must be accomplished:

Prepare a plant layout

Size the equipment according to waste volume information

Provide spill-containment structures

Comply with building and fire codes

Ensure that the system is operator-friendly

Prepare a report that documents the system design

Prepare plans and specifications

Prepare an operations and maintenance manual

Obtain the necessary permits

Train shop personnel

Install the equipment

Start up and evaluate the system

Document system performance

The purpose of the design report is to document the work done to develop or redesign the waste treatment system. The report should be complete and detailed enough that a person familiar with waste treatment can assess whether an adequate job was done in selecting the waste treatment process chemistry and equipment. The report should contain, at minimum, a concise summary of the characteristics of the waste stream, a description of the procedure used to select the treatment process, and a description of the treatment process.

Plans and specifications for the waste treatment system should be prepared. The plans and specs are used to ensure that the finished plant will be built to minimum standards, to obtain supplier quotations, to allow the construction manage...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• The Author
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Dedication
• 1. How To Use This Book
• 2. Characterizing Your Wastewater
• 3. Determining Wastewater Management Limitations
• 4. Developing Wastewater Management Alternatives
• 5. Evaluating The Alternatives
• 6. Selecting The Best Alternative
• 7. Implementing The Wastewater Treatment System
• 8. Working With Suppliers
• 9. Annotated Bibliography
• Appendix 1. Boatyard Wastewater Treatment Example
• Appendix 2. Automotive Machine Shop Wastewater Treatment
• Appendix 3. Oily Wastewater Treatment Example
• Index