Wastewater operator

Much of the experience and data from wastewater treatment has been gained from municipal treatment plants. Industrial liquid wastes are similar to wastewater but differ in significant ways. Thus, typical design parameters and standards developed for municipal wastewater operations must not be blindly utilized for industrial wastewater. It is best to run laboratory and small pilot tests with the specific industrial wastewater as part of the design process. It is most important to understand the temporal variations in industrial wastewater strength, flow, and waste components and their effect on the performance of various treatment processes. Industry personnel in an effort to reduce cost often neglect laboratory and pilot studies and depend on waste characteristics from similar plants. This strategy often results in failure, delay, and increased costs. Careful studies on the actual waste at a plant site cannot be overemphasized. 

Because the ASH technology has varied uses in the remediation and industrial sectors, costs will depend on the specific application. According to Advanced Processing Technologies, Inc. (APT), operation and maintenance costs for an ASH system that can process 50 tons of soil per hour are 2 to 5 per ton of soil treated. This estimate also includes labor costs. To process a steady feed stream of 10 to 20 gal/min of wash-rack wastewater, operational costs are 0.60 to 1.50 per 1000 gal of water treated. The capital costs of an ASH unit for this application range from 15,000 to 30,000 (D14439I, p. 2). 

At present, wastewater operator tests of ASAP are pending. Management staff at Dallas Water Utilities have run through sessions with ASAP, and their reaction has been very positive. 

Process technician—a person who operates and maintains the complex equipment, systems, and technologies found in the chemical processing industry. Because these people work closely with specific pieces of equipment or processes, they are commonly called boiler operators, compressor technicians, distillation technicians, refinery technicians, or wastewater operators. 

Chlorine Institute, The. 1999. Water and Wastewater Operators Chlorine Handbook. Washington, D.C. The Chlorine Institute. 

The capital cost of most aqueous waste treatment operations is proportional to the total flow of wastewater, and the operating cost increases with decreasing concentration for a given mass of contaminant to be removed. Thus, if two streams require different treatment operations, it makes no sense to mix them and treat both streams in both treatment operations. This will increase both capital and operating costs. Rather, the streams should be segregated and treated separately in a distributed effluent treatment system. Indeed, effective primary treatment might mean that some streams do not need biological treatment at all. 

Z. Evaporation. If the wastewater is in low volume and the waste material involatile, then evaporation can be used to concentrate the waste. The relatively pure evaporated water might still require biological treatment after condensation. The concentrated waste can then be recycled or sent for further treatment or disposal. The cost of such operations can be prohibitively expensive unless the heat available in the evaporated water can be recovered. 

The plant wastewater containing NH and urea is subjected to a desorption—hydrolysis operation to recover almost all the NH and urea. In some plants, this water can then be used for boiler feedwater. 

All process Hcensors also feature wastewater treatment systems. Stamicarbon guarantees the lowest NH —urea content and has plants in operation confirming the low NH —urea (1 ppm NH —1 ppm urea). This water is very satisfactory to use as boiler feed water. See Figures 16 and 17 for this system. 

The wastewater produced in this process consists mostly of water used in cleanup and propellant conveyance and sorting operations. Techniques such as the use of activated carbon and biological treatment are being investigated for the removal of solvents and dissolved organic compounds (143). 

The Phenox process (254) removes phenol (qv) from the efduent from catalytic cracking in the petroleum industry. Extraction of phenols from ammoniacal coke-oven Hquor may show a small profit. Acetic acid can be recovered by extraction from dilute waste streams (255). Oils are recovered by extraction from oily wastewater from petroleum and petrochemical operations. Solvent extraction is employed commercially for the removal of valuable... 

As the economic value of coproducts has decreased, it has become more difficult to provide capital for environmental controls on air emissions and wastewater streams such as toxic phenoHc effluents from chemical recovery operations. Some former coke and manufactured gas sites may require remediation to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater. These difficulties will force the shutdown of some operations and discourage recovery of coproducts in future installations. 

Concentrating the organic soHds in municipal or industrial wastewater to produce a sludge with a minimum volume and water content for incineration or other means of disposal, and a clarified (very low suspended soHds) water that can be discharged or recycled. This operation is often called dewatering (qv). 

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