Waste thickener

The raw potassium manganate(VI) from the secondary roaster or the Hquid-phase oxidizer contains a fair amount of insoluble material such as unreacted MnO and ore gangue. In most continuous processes, these insolubles are removed by sedimentation using thickeners or filtration and are disposed of as waste. 

Environmental Impact. The volume of waste remover from these products is remarkably increased when compared to methylene chloride, petroleum, and oxygenate removers, since both /V-methy1pyrro1idinone and dibasic esters have low vapor pressures. Recovery of the remover after use is difficult because the finish is tesolubili2ed by the remover. A representative dibasic ester formula appears below for a thickened water rinse finish remover. 

A BrasiHan company has reportedly produced ammonium chloride from hydrogen chloride gas (16). Hydrogen chloride is mixed with air and iatroduced iato a saturated ammonium chloride suspension at 80 °C. Excess ammonia is added to a conical section of the saturator to maintain a pH of 8. The ammonium chloride is recovered from the suspension by thickening ia a hydroclone, foUowed by centrifugation and dryiag. Mother Hquor and the water used to scmb waste gases, are returned to the saturator. 

Dissolved Air Flotation. Dissolved air flotation (DAF) is used to separate suspended soflds and oil and grease from aqueous streams and to concentrate or thicken sludges. Air bubbles carry or float these materials to the surface where they can be removed. The air bubbles are formed by pressurizing either the influent wastewater or a portion of the effluent in the presence of air. When the pressurized stream enters the flotation tank which is at atmospheric pressure, the dissolved air comes out of solution as tiny, microscopic bubbles. Dissolved air flotation is used in many wastewater treatment systems, but in the United States it is perhaps best known with respect to hazardous waste because it is associated with the Hsted waste, K048, DAF flotation soflds from petroleum refining wastewaters. Of course, the process itself is not what is hazardous, but the materials it helps to remove from refining wastewaters. 

Continuous clarifiers generally are employed with dilute suspensions, principally industrial process streams and domestic municipal wastes, and their primary purpose is to produce a relatively clear overflow. They are basically identical to thickeners in design and layout except that they employ a mechanism of hghter construction and a drive head with a lower torque capability. These differences are permitted in clarification applications because the thickened pulp produced is smaller in volume and appreciably lower in suspended solids concentration, owing in part to the large percentage of relatively fine (smaller than 10 Im) solids. The installed cost of a clarifier, therefore, is approximately 5 to 10 percent less than that of a thickener of equal tank size, as given in Fig. 18-94. 

Soft solids, most of which are biological waste such as sewage, are difficult to convey up the beach. Annular baffles or dams have been commonly used to provide a pool-level difference wherein the pool is deeper upstream of the baffle toward the clarifier and lower downstream of the baffle toward the beach. The pool-level difference across the baffle, together with the differential speed, provide the driving force to convey the compressible sludge up the beach. This has been used effectively in thickening of waste-activated sludge and in some cases of fine clay with dilatant characteristics. 

Table 28-2 lists some of the currently used pretreatments and ultimate disposal methods for hazardous wastes (6). Pretreatment refers almost entirely to thickening or dewatering processes for liquids or sludges. This process not only reduces the volume of the waste but also allows easier handling and transport. 

Detention Time Waste activated sludge only, after sludge thickening. 10 -15 days volumetric displacement time. If sludge temperatures are much less than 60°F, more capacity should be provided. Primary sludge mixed with waste activated or trickling filter humus. 20 days displacement time in moderate climates. 

Water treatment Clarification of potable water, industrial effluents, municipal waste water thickening and dewatering of sludge filtration of primary sludge, digested sludge food processing... 

Copper concentration Copper ore, water, chemical reagents, thickeners Flotation wastewaters Tailings containing waste minerals such as limestone, and quartz... 

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