ABSTRACT

EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY'S

WASTE MANGEMENT PROGRAM

AT KODAK PARK

JAMES A. MUSSGNUG HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT LABORATORIES EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY ROCHESTER, NY 14650

Successful waste management in industry requires a clear corporate strategy and the commitment of resources to implement programs. At Eastman Kodak Company, one of the goals of an active quality management program is to reduce waste from all operations. Subsequent to source reduction, residual wastes are managed according to the waste minimization hierarchy that reuse, recovery and treatment are, in decreasing order, preferable to land disposal. At Kodak Park, the site of the Company's principal photographic manufacturing operations, major recovery facilities have been developed over the last sixty years. These operations recover solvents, silver, and acetate and polyester film base for reuse in production, reducing raw material requirements by over $200 million per year. Managing the non-recoverable wastes is typically accomplished at either an on-site combustible waste incinerator used for energy recovery, a chemical waste incinerator, or by wastewater treatment. Through continued efforts, over 90% of the solid waste (non-construction rubble) and more- than 99.9% of the hazardous waste produced at Kodak Park today is minimized through either on-site recovery operations and incineration or outside sales.

EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY'S

WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

AT KODAK PARK

JAMES A. MIJSSGNUG

EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY ROCHESTER, NY 14650

' HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT LABORATORIES

Waste management is not only a pressing issue for industry today but for communities everywhere. Increased public awareness, regulatory requirements, and liability concerns are manifestations of the recent emphasis on protection of our air, water, and land resources. C6mmunities and businesses across the nation are grappling with difficulties in resolving growing problems with disposal of solid wastes.

Successful waste management by industry begins with a corporate strategy to set overall direction and dedication of resources to implement programs. Eastman Kodak Company has a long-standing and well-founded reputation for responsible waste management and environmental protection for many years . . . raw materials recovery since the 1920's, refuse and chemical waste incineration since the 1930's, and wastewater treatment since the 1950's.

Some of the specific waste management principles of the Eastman Kodak Company can be summarized as:

* Reduce generation of waste from all operations, at source, to the fullest extent practicable.

* Follow the waste minimization hierarchy for residual wastes, listed in order of preference as: reuse/recyle, reclamation/recovery, energy recovery, incineration, other treatment, and lastly land disposal.

* Eliminate hazardous waste land disposal, where alternative technologies are practicable.

* Eliminate use of off-site solid waste land disposal facilities for combustible refuse, where incineration capacity is available.

The following paper will focus on the application of these principles at Kodak Park in the handling of some of the wastes from the manufacture of sensitized photographic materials.

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BACKGROUND

Eastman Kodak Company's principal photographic manufacturing operations are located at Kodak Park, in Rochester, New York. The Kodak Park site is a fully integrated manufacturing complex covering some 2,000 acres. Operations involve more than 20,000 employees working in some 200 buildings, containing over 20,000,000 square feet of floor space. To support this variety of operations a complete infrastructure has been developed to provide services ranging from steam/electric generation to waste treatment to fire protection.

Production of photographic materials begins with the preparation of a base material such as acetate, polyester, or paper, silver halides, gelatin, and numerous specialty chemicals used as dyes, sensitizers, etc.. These chemicals, along with the gelatin and light-sensitive silver-halides, are utilized to produce a variety of "emulsions" which in turn are then coated on the base material. Figure 1A depicts an overview of this process. An interesting fact is that Kodak is the world's largest industrial user of- silver. As will be shown later, an aspect of some of the major recovery and treatment operations is silver recovery.

SOURCE REDUCTION

While Kodak has always regarded waste reduction to be advantageous to waste management, recent improved techniques in quality programs are resulting in on-going improvements in product quality and uniformity while reducing waste in all operations. This application integrates statistical process control with leadership and teamwork to strive for continuous process improvement. These programs have a cascade effect in lowering raw material requirements. For instance, reductions in waste from the coating operations translates immediately into lower requirements for the many constituent chemicals used in emulsions. Conversely, as the quality of raw materials and intermediates is increased, final product waste is decreased, resulting in less materials requirement per unit of saleable product. An example of the impacts of continuous improvements from the quality program can be found in the preparation of resin-coated paper base. As a result of improved process control, waste from theese operations was reduced 40% during the 1984 - 1987 time period, as shown in Figure 2. Overall benefits of the quality program are improved product uniformity, reduced waste, and lowered manufacturing costs.

RECOVERY OPERATIONS

Subsequent to investigation of waste reduction, on-site recycling or recovery operations are preferable, according to the Company's waste minimization hierarchy. the last 60 to 70 years, major facilities have been developed at Kodak Park in the areas of solvent recovery,, acetate and polyester base recovery, and silver recovery to support the photographic manufacturing operations (see Figure 1B). The following sections describe some of these operations and include suggestions for those considering similar recovery operations,

Over

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Solvent Recovery

The distilling department is the primary supplier of organic solvents for Kodak Park. It orders, receives, stores, refines, and blends solvents for use in the acetate film operations, synthetic chemicals production, coating operations, and various other Kodak Park operations. Some 30 million gallons per year of crude solvent streams are returned to the distilling department for recovery and reuse. Major solvent recovery equipment includes some 30 stills ranging in size from 2 to 6 feet in diameter, and 10 extractors. New and refined solvents are supplied to customers through pipelines, trailers, portable tanks, drums or safety containers.

The largest distilling process is a dedicated closed-loop recovery operation supporting the acetate film production operations. Acetate film base, which is used for products such as 35” film, is manufactured by casting cellulose triacetate from a solvent solution. The solvent-laden process air passes through a brine-chilled condenser, with the cleaned air returned to the process equipment. The condensed solvents are piped back to the distilling department for recovery. This continuous recovery system processes in excess of 70,000 gallons per day of a crude solvent mixture. This process utilizes a train of over a dozen extractors and stills to separate the principal components of the crude stream. These recovered solvents are subsequently reblended to meet specific manufacturing requirements and returned to the production operation which dissolves the cellulose triacetate prior to film base production.

This dedicated solvent recovery operation has evolved far over sixty years, indicative of Kodak’s long-standing commitment to the environment and the awareness of the economically attractive role that recycling plays. Over 96% of the solvent that is supplied to acetate production is condensed, returned to distilling, and successfully recovered for reuse. Losses occur through permitted process vents and incineration of unrecoverable side-streams and still bottoms.

A typical solvent recovery loop can be depicted as in Figure 3 . The customer uses a combination of new and recovered solvent in their operations and returns crude solvent to the distilling operations for recovery. The returned volume of crude does not always equal the incoming solvent because of residual solvent in the product, incinerated non-recoverable solvent, and permitted process emissions. The distilling department recovers the solvent and blends additional new solvent as is required, for subsequent return to the customer. Incidental to the recovery operation, waste streams, comprised of the contaminants in the crude stream, are generated requiring further treatment by such means as biological wastewater treatment or incineration.

An example of a recovery process to separate two primary components with water soluble solids is shown in Figure 4 . The crude is initially fed to a steamer to separate solids, which are subsequently sewered or incinerated. The distillate from this operation is collected in a tank prior to being fed to a stripper still to separate the two components.

An example of a multi-component separation, without solids removal, is shown in Figure 5 . In this process, the crude stream is continuously fed to an extractor where a light layer wash is introduced. Both the light and heavy layers are subsequently separated. Again, a point to keep in mind is that

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recovery operations do generate waste streams which require further treatment, either by wastewater treatment or incineration.

Another responsibility of the distilling department is to recover the major solvents utilized in the synthetic organic chemical production operations. These operations synthesize several thousand specialty chemicals, typically in batch mode, primarily for use internally, but also for sale to universities, research laboratories, and industry. The primary chemical production areas are equipped with solvent storage facilities to temporarily accumulate solvents destined for recovery. This crude solvent mixture is subsequently piped or trailered to the distilling department for recovery. This recovery operation begins with a steam distillation to separate the

. solvents from the solids, which are incinerated on-site. Next, an extractor fed with water is utilized to separate water miscible solvents. This aqueous stream is processed by a series of stills and decanters to reclaim solvents such as acetone, isopropanol, and methanol. The non-water miscible solvents, such as heptane and' xylene, are also separated by a still and decanter. Recovered solvents are returned to the production areas via pipeline.

Disposition of waste streams containing solvent at Kodak Park begins with consideration of the solvent content. For instance, waste streams containing above about 20% solvent are considered for direct recovery in the systems previously described or similar processes. Waste streams containing about 5 to 20% solvent are stripped of water and then recovered or incinerated depending on solvent composition. Finally, aqueous streams containing relatively low quantities of solvent are sewered for biological treatment.

The determination to recover solvents can be summarized as a balance of a number of factors:

Con - Pro - Save cost of raw materials Avoidance of treatment/ 'Labor requirements

Quality improvement Energy requirements Environmental benefit: Technology - Reduced liability Risks : - Releases to the environment - Form of waste minimization - Quality considerations - Preservation of natural resources - Safety considerations

Capital requirements

disposal costs Regulatory permit requirements

In performing a cost analysis of solvent recovery operations, the full cost can be obtained by summing the out-of-pocket (OOP) and the fixed costs:

Full Cost - OOP + Fixed

Steam Process equipment Nitrogen Tanks Direct lab or Staff Disposal costs Supervision New solvent Lab equipment Chemicals Off ices Water Buildings Compressed air Fixed utilities charges Lab supplies

Upon analysis, the typical solvent recovery processes are found to be equipment and not labor intensive.

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Finally, in addition to the previous economic and environmental considerations, a number of potential problems should be addressed when considering a solvent recovery operation:

storage of crude and recovered solvent solids removal c o rro s ion reactivity f lammab i 1 i ty heat of decomposition of solids inseparable mixes/azeotropes no customer for recovered solvent must incinerate or treat some unrecoverable mixtures imperfect separation of constituents treatment/disposal of solids undesirable contaminants

Management of spent solvents is most effectively accomplished by a multidisciplinary team comprised of representatives of the generating department, both production and development, analytical testing laboratory, distilling department, financial services, and the environmental and safety staffs. In the overall waste management hierarchy, once the generating department has reviewed source reduction techniques, this team can ascertain if a recovery process can be economically and safely implemented. If on-site recovery is found to be impractical, then investment recovery specialists can review secondary external markets or recovery facilities. The final method of . disposition to be considered is incineration.

Polyester Recovery

The polyester recovery department converts polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste materials generated by film manufacturing divisions at Kodak Park and Colorado and resin and fiber manufacturing plants operated by the Eastman Chemicals Division into the basic constituents, dimethylterephthalate (DMT) and ethylene glycol (EG). These chemicals are reused at Kodak Park for the production of high quality polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used in the manufacture of base for products such as X-ray and graphic arts films.

This polyester recovery operation contrasts with the typical recycling activities found in the plastics industry and used at Kodak Park in the manufacture of film crtidges and other plastic parts, where the waste plastic is reground and recycled directly to an extruder or injection molding equipment. The concerns with direct recycle of PET are degradation in molecular weight, and contamination. In this operation, the reaction to produce PET:

Dimethyl Terephthalate (DMT) + Ethylene Glycol (EG) Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) + Methanol

is driven in reverse by application of heat and a catalyst with an excess of methanol. While the reaction conditions have been chosen to maximize this reaction, clearly the second law of thermodynamics controls the extent of this

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reaction, thereby placing a limit on production efficiency. While this is a capital intensive manner in which to recycle a plastic, chosen in order to produce high quality PET, this process is economically attractive when considering the value of the raw materials that are received and the avoided disposal costs.

The incoming materials to this department are both silver halide sensitized and unsensitized waste polyester film base and various types of waste from fiber and resin production operations. Processing of sensitized film begins with the film washing process, shown in Figure 6 . Initially, the scrap film is size reduced, then chemically treated in a washer to remove the silver containing emulsion layers. The silver rich waters produced in this step are shipped to the silver recovery department for treatment. The chopped film. base is subsequently rinsed and dried, and serves as a feed to the polyester recovery process.

The actual production of the DMT and EG takes place in the polyester recovery process, shown in Figure 7. The feed streams to this operation are the chopped and washed film base, described above, and other size reduced unsensitized film base and scrap polyester. The initial reaction step involves addition of methanol, in the presence of heat and a catalyst, to drive the polymerization reaction in reverse. The resultant stream is cooled to crystallize the DMT, and then filtered and washed with methanol to separate the crude DMT solids.

Upon reheating and distilling the crude DMT solids, high purity DMT is recovered. The DMT still dregs are incinerated. The methanol rich filtrate stream is further processed in a series of distillation and purification steps, to reclaim ethylene glycol and methanol. This methanol is from the excess used to drive the reaction backwards, and the methanol used in the previous DMT washing step. The two waste streams from this step are a sludge from the ethylene glycol still, which is incinerated, and methanol still bottoms, which are primarily water, which is sewered.

The polyester recovery department reclaims approximately 50 million pounds of DMT and 15 million pounds of EG annually. This amounts to greater than 90% conversion of incoming feeds. These materials are reused on-site as make-up in the production of PET, significantly reducing raw material requirements, and avoiding incinerating or landfilling the waste polyester.

Complications in this type of recovery process are related to the typical waste feed management category, and those similar to other chemical processes. The feed to this process ranges in size from small pellets to photographic support rolls weighing as much as 2 . 5 tons, requiring splitting and chopping equipment to manage a variety of feeds. Chemical process type concerns that have been addressed have included fouling of the catalyst to feed contamination, flammability issues due to the high temperature and pressure conditions, freezing of lines during winter conditions, and lowered condensing capacity during the warm weather. An economic factor which may affect the choice to recover the polymer constituents versus selling for the scrap plastic value is based on the volatility of markets dependent upon oil prices.

due

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Silver Recovery

The silver recovery department operates processes to recover silver and acetate film base from waste generated from sensitizing operations both at Kodak Park and other world-wide Company manufacturing operations. Although silver prices have received a great deal of attention, especially in the early ~

1980's, we have been in the business of reclamation for over 50 years, even when silver sold for only $0.50 per ounce. While the costs of raw materials for making film base are comparatively lower than that of silver, we have found it economical to recover the film base as well. As an indication of the extent of this program, it is interesting to note that even the sprocket perforations cut from film are recovered.

The recovery department receives waste liquid emulsion wastes, sensitized photographic paper and film, and crude silver from Kodak operations worldwide, but primarily from Kodak Park. The four major parts in the recovery process are :

- Acetate base recovery, - Water treating to remove silver from liquid waste streams, - Incineration of sensitized papers and some films, - Smelting and refining to obtain pure metallic silver.

-

The major products of this operation are silver, and recovered acetate support (RAS). The recovery and recycling of RAS (cellulose acetate) is very cost effective in the preparation of film base.

The acetate scrap film recovery process is shown in Figure 8 . Material flow begins with truck delivery of scrap film in all shapes and sizes: from the tiny sprocket perforations to wide rolls. In between are all of the various sizes of cut sheet and roll films, edge trimmings from base preparation, and other production scrap. This material is sorted at the generating department depending upon the specific base composition. Rolls, upon receipt, are split to begin the size reduction process. Next, each batch of material is chopped. The chopped film is treated in large intensely agitated washers with hot water and caustic to remove the silver laden emulsion layers. The silver rich water from this operation is combined with other aqueous streams and treated in the water treating operation. Additional chemical treatment in these washers removes any residual coating layers from the base. The now clean acetate is dewatered and dried. The dried film is weighed, sampled, and stored in tote bins. Disposition of each batch depends on composition. The acetate is then directly recycled in the acetate support preparation area.

The second recovery operation, shown in Figure 9, involves treatment of aqueous streams to produce a silver rich mud. The feed to this process is comprised of aqueous waste emulsions and rinses from various sensitizing operations, and the silver rich washes from the acetate and polyester film recovery systems previously described. This feed is characterized as an aqueous suspension of colloidal silver particles and silver salts in gelatin. An initial conditioning step is followed by a series of two clarifiers, o r settling tanks, where a flocculating agent is added. The silver particles settle to the bottom of the vessel and form a sludge. This settled sludge is

. then treated to regenerate the flocculant and passed through a thickener to remove the silver. The silver-rich sludge from the thickener is centrifuged and fed to a roaster where the remaining moisture and organics are driven off. The roasting takes place in either a multiple hearth or rotary kiln

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roaster. Roasted ash is cooled and held for smelting. Flyash in the exhaust gas the roaster is cleaned by an electrostatic precipitator and collected for further processing. The third recovery operation takes place in the sensitized waste incinerator (see Figure 10). Here, sensitized waste paper generated in the manufacturing process is burned because of the difficulty in removing various materials used in manufacture. In addition, sensitized film scrap which is contaminated or otherwise unsuitable for recovery is burned. This silver rich ash is further processed in the next operation.

from

The final recovery operation, also shown in Figure 10, involves smelting and refining the various ash streams to produce 99.9% pure silver. The roaster and burner ash streams are blended and added to a smelter with various oxidizing and fluxing chemicals. In this process, non-silver compounds are converted to oxides while the unstable silver oxide decomposes to metallic silver. The molten material is poured from the smelter into molds where the more dense silver separates from the lighter slag layer. The slag retains enough silver to make it cost effective to sell to an outside refiner for recovery. The silver is remelted in an induction furnace and cast into large bars which are used as the anode of an electrolytic cell. These anodes are placed in an electrolytic cell-. The silver plates out as crystals on the cathode and is periodically removed, washed, and dried for reuse in the production of silver nitrate. Impurities such as copper and lead are removed from the system and either reused or sold.

Each year, this recovery/recycle operation processes many millions of pounds of scrap and millions of ounces of silver. Total value of the recovered material is in excess of $100 million per year. The size and complexity of this recovery operation is easily justified by the economics. However, concerns over feed management and product quality must be properly addressed. Systems and procedures must be in place and routinely reviwed and reinforced to assure that the recovery process feed requirements are met in order to maximize yields. Other concerns include designing and maintaining process equipment to withstand the high temperature and corrosive conditions inherent in the process. In any manufacturing process where recycle streams are used, build-up of contaminants must be addressed and appropriate controls instituted.

Recovery Operations Summary

To give an indication of the total size of the three recovery operations just described, the net savings to the Company from these operations is in excess of $200,000,000 per year in raw materials savings alone, not counting avoided costs for treatment or disposal.

Summa .rizing the inherent challenges in recovery operations: * Success depends heavily on careful segregation of feed materials. * Process control is essential to recycled material's final quality. * Recovery costs need to compare favorably to the competing raw

material value. * Flexibility is needed to accomodate technological and marketplace

changes. * No process is 100% efficient nor 100% available. * Recovery processes, like production operations, generate waste

streams which must be properly managed.

OFF-SITE SECONDARY MATERIALS MARKETS

Following consideration of source reduction and then on-site recovery, alternative uses for residual wastes are investigated by an "Investment Recovery" department. Markets for these waste streams and other by-products and excess materials are solicited. For instance, markets for the reuse of -waste resin coated paper base have been found in the packaging industry while boiler slag is utilized for the manufacture of roofing materials. This department also operates a metal salvage operation and a bailer for scrap paper.

TREATMENT

The last form of waste minimization utilized at Kodak Park is waste treatment. As was previously pointed out, recovery operations are not 100% effective, and produce waste streams requiring further treatment. In addition, a number of residual waste streams following investigation of source reduction, recovery, or outside sales require treatment. For these reasons, three major treatment operations have been installed at Kodak Park: 1. combustible waste incinerator for energy recovery, 2. chemical waste incinerator, and 3 . wastewater treatment plant. Summaries of these facilities are provided in the appendix.

SUMMARY

Effective waste management requ-res a c-fined corporate strategy and the resources to institute a variety of programs and processes. At Kodak Park, a multidisciplinary team made up of representatives from the waste disposal department, recovery, manufacturing, engineering, environmental services, legal, financial services, and investment recovery are utilized in formulating aspects of this program. Through continued efforts, over 90% of the solid waste (non-construction rubble) and more than 99.9% of the hazardous waste produced at Kodak Park today is minimized through either on-site recovery operations and incineration or outside sales.

FIGURE 1A

RAW ~b SILVER MATERIAL PREPARATION

GELATINE MANUFACTURING 4TERlAL 4w I

EMULSION PREPARATION

SPECIALTY RAW HEMICALS 0

MATERIAL -+-BASE +BASE SENSITIZING + FINISHING + +PRODUCT

PREPARATION

I

P 0

I

-MANUFACTURE OPERATIONS

I I I l~

FIGURE 1B PROCESCOVERVIEW

PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM or PAPER MANUFACTURING

GELATINE MATERIAL MANUFACTURING

SPECIALTY RAW CHEMICALS

PREPARATION RAW SILVER

.............. .......... ........................ ......................... MATERIAL . PREPARATION C........ .. .. .. *&..

::.E.

....... .. .......... .... ............ .%. ..: ..... .. ...... .. .......... ........................E ...... RAW.

’ MATERIAL -- BASE .BASE ............... *..f............gg~ ,:.:. ;ti. :::-+ PREPARATION -+ MANUFACTURE

t.:.:.

I i i i 1 i i I f

2. ..............E...

i i

.:...........:.....d..........,.................*...........i.. ...... .............E .................................. : :. i i

.. ................................................... ...... ....................,..*

...... ...... ............................. ...................... .... &?. a :

SI LVER-R I CH :t

WATER , ;,LVERy :.> :.:. , .;:i;fi ..................... ..:

................................ .. .. .. ..

.................... ,. ......................... ............................ ................................................................................. .......................................................................... ....... ....,.....,... ’ ! RECOVERY I

I

P P

I

I I I 1 i

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0 0 0 In c*. co 0 0 0

0 0, 00 c

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a w > 0 u

.Ma WI w L I

FIGURE 4 RECOVERY PROCESS FOR TWO PRIMARY COMPONENTS

STEAMER

COOLING WATER

STEAM c

FRACTIONATOR

COOL I NG -@ WATER

COMPONENT

WASTE 7-

I

lb

I

P'

TREATMENT

I I

t WASTE TREATMENT

I i

FIGURE 5 RECOVERY PROCESS FOR MULTI-COMPONENT SEPARATION

A CRUDE

EXTRACTOR

I- SEWER

COOLING WATER

T CONTINUOUS STILL

A,C,D,E PRODUCTS

I3 TO INCINERATOR

b C I

COOLING WATER

I -

I I i ’

Q \ 4

E

INCINERATOR

BATCH STILL

I

P ln I

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ol W ol w I-

3 w n

ar: w >- CYI n

3- I I

i ar: W

0

FIGURE 7 POLYESTER RECOV'RY PROCESS

PRODUCT

METHANOL CATALYST

t MASHED FILM BASE

POLYESTER SCRAP REACTION

STEP RECYCLE SLUDGE

b

RECOVERED ETHYLENE GLYCOL 1 i

METHANOL WASH

I

I STEP

t f ETYLENE GLYCOL STILL BOTTOMS SLUDGE TO TO WASTEWATER INCINERATOR TREATMENT

SEPARATION

STEP

. ICRUDEDMT

1 DISTILLATION

STEP

RECOVERED DIMETHYL TEREPHTHALATE IDMT) DMT DREGS T J INCINERATOR

I I

FIGURE 8 ACETATE FILM RECOVERY

1 CHEMICALS

K~LLS L O ~ S E FILM

WASH WATERS TO, SILVER RECOVERY

f--------------- RINSE WATERS TO WASTEWATER TREATMENT

I I

DRYER P BOXED STORAGE FOR REUSE IN ACETATE SUPPORT MANUFACTURE

I

P 03 I

FIGURE 9 SILVER RECOVERY - WATER TREATING

WATERS EMULSION WATERS

FLOC. \

STACK

CONDlTl ON ING

TO WASTE-

TREATMENT & WATER

SAND ' FILTER J . I

FLOC. REGENERATOR

PRECzlTAToR ASH

I REGENERATED

. ELECTROSTATIC PREC IP I TATOR

I I I ROASTER 4 CENTRIFUGE

i

ROASTER ASH TO SMELTING AND REFINING

I I

FLOCCULATING AGENT

TO STACK

SILVER SLAG BARS *

ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR

ELECTROLYTIC CELL

REMELT ANODE FURNACE BARS

FIGURE 10 SILVER RECOVERY JNC INERATION, SMEl TING, REFINING

SCRAP FILM, PAPER

WASTE INCINERATOR

TO STACK

t , I ELECTROSTATIC I PRECl P I TATOR

I : I SMELTER r

I

h) 0

I

99.9% PURE SILVER CRYSTALS WASHEDIDRIED TO MANUFACTURING

t

I I I I I

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A P P E N D I X

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Combustible Waste Incinerator

Kodak, recognizing the shortcomings of landfilling, had the foresight to install incineration capacity for both refuse and chemical waste in 1946. In the late 1960's, design of a combustible refuse incinerator equipped with heat recovery was begun to supplement steam generation, and was brought on-line in 1970. This facility was designed to handle both non-chemically contaminated combustible refuse and serve as a back-up incinerator for sludge from the industrial wastewater treatment plant. The plant has a combined refuse and sludge disposal capacity of approximately 300 tons per day. The process, as shown in Figure 11, can basically be broken down into three systems: a refuse handling system, a sludge handling system. and a combustion system.

The refuse system begins with a receiving pit where refuse consisting generally of paper, packgaging wastes, general plant trash, plastic, and wood is unloaded. An overhead crane picks up' the refuse and delivers it to an infeed conveyor which feeds a refuse shredder. The infeed conveyor consists of a ram which pushes the refuse into the throat of an 1000 HP hammer-mill shredder. The shredded refuse, typically 3/4" in size, is discharged to an .air classifier system where the dense material is separated from the lighter combustible fraction, which is pneumatically conveyed into a storage silo. The silo is a live center type equipped with 14 vertical mixing screws and 4 outfeed screw conveyors. Each of these four outfeed screws feed a high pressure pneumatic conveying system which transports the shredded waste to the combustion system.

storage

The sludge system handles a combination of primary and secondary sludges from the industrial wastewater treatment plant during back-up conditions. The sludge is pumped from a storage bin to a flash drying system. This material is then conditioned with an amount of recycled dried sludge and then introduced to a cage mill where 1,000 degree F flue gases dry the sludge to about 10 % moisture. This dried sludge is then pneumatically conveyed to the combustion system.

The combustion process takes place in suspension in a water-wall boiler. The four streams of general plant waste are pneumatically conveyed into the four corners of the boiler, while the dried sludge is introduced in diagonally opposite corners. Introduction of the feed in this manner creates a cyclonic action with most of the combustion taking place in this fireball. The boiler is of the balanced draft type with both forced and induced draft fans. Any material not burned in suspension is burned on a dump grate. The flue gases from the boiler are cleaned by an electrostatic precipitator. The combined fly ash and bottom ash from this process is shipped to a smelter to. recover residual silver.

The boiler which is fed to the general plant steam distribution system. million per year is saved due to the steam savings from this operation.

generates approximately 80,000 pounds per hour of steam at 400 psig Approximately $4

Feed management to this facility is crucial to avoid incidents of receiving large metal items or gas cyclinders, which would present problems in the shredder. At-source segregation of waste streams and continued education are required to maintain safe operation of the facility .

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Chemical Waste Incinerator

On-site incineration of chemical wastes dates back to 1946. In 1976, a state-of-the-art 120 million Btu/hr rotary kiln incinerator was brought on-line at Kodak Park. The incinerator is used to destroy both hazardous and nonhazardous chemical waste, primarily from Kodak Park operations, but is also permitted to accept waste from other off-site Company facilities. It consists of a rotary kiln, ash removal system, secondary combustion chamber, quench chamber, high-efficiency venturi scrubber, demister, scrubber water recirculation system, two induced draft fans in series, and a dedicated stack. A flow diagram of the facility is shown in Figure 12.

Solid wastes consist of polymer dregs, rags, filter cakes, still bottom tars, sludges, contaminated non-recoverable containers including 55 gallon steel drums, and other material. These wastes, except the dregs and tars, are usually received in 55 gallon fiber drums, and mechanically fed through an air lock system into the kiln. The feed rate can be controlled automatically or manually. The burned out drums and ash travel through the kiln and discharge into a quench trough containing water. The wet ash, metal hoops, metal drums, and slag are removed by a drag conveyor. The ash, due to its silver content, is shipped to a smelter for recovery.

The liquid wastes consist principally of alcohols, alkanes, ketones, water,chlorinated one and two carbon compounds, and aromatics, in addition to smaller quantities of other organic compounds. The liquid wastes are received in containers ranging in size from 5 to 5000 gallons. They may be fed directly or blended with other liquid waste and fed from storage tanks. Depending upon the characteristics of the waste feed, one of four kiln burners or one of two atomizers in the secondary combustion chamber vortex burner may be used to introduce the material into the combustion process. Atomization is accomplished by either steam or compressed air depending on the reactivity of the liquid waste.

The hot gases from the kiln pass through a transition mixing chamber and enter the secondary combustion chamber through a flame front provided by the vortex secondary combustion chamber burner. This burner is typically fueled with liquid solvent waste and is supplemented with #2 fuel oil as required reach operating temperature. The secondary combustion chamber provides about an additional 2 seconds of residence time beyond the two seconds in the kiln.

to

The hot gases from the secondary combustion chamber pass to the quench chamber where they are cooled with water sprays to a temperature of about 170 degrees F. The saturated gases then go through a high efficiency, variable throat venturi scrubber, where particles in the sub-micron range and acid gases are scrubbed out. The scrubbed gases pass through a spin vane cyclonic liquid-gas separator to remove the entrained liquid, then go through two 1,000 horsepower induced draft fans in series, a silencer for noise suppression, and a free standing 200 foot stack.

FIGURE 12

UTILITIES DIVISION WASTE DISPOSAL DEPARTMENT CHEMICAL WASTE DISPOSAL B-218

INCINERATION (COMBUSTION) PROCESS OIL TANK V-340 - AIR POLLUTION CONTROL PROCESS

0 AIR HANDLING

n LIQUID WASTE HANDLING & FEED SYSTEM

I I SOLID WASTE HANDLING & FEED SYSTEM

I

h) Ln

I

I t

OVERFLOW TO KOOAK WATER MANE UP 100 GPM

I

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Wastewater Purification Plant

The treatment of approximately 30 million gallons per day of industrial wastewater from Kodak Park is accomplished at the King's Landing Wastewater Purification Plant, The plant is located on a 30 acre site on the west bank of the Genesee River. The plant, as shown in Figure 1 3 , is a combination of primary treatment for removal of suspended solids from the wastewater and ~

secondary treatment for removal of dissolved organic materials. The primary -

plant has been in operation since 1957 , with the secondary plant addition completed in 1971.

Initial pretreatment to the plant is accomplished in a bar screen/aerated grit chamber. Screenings are incinerated on-site, while the grit is combined with incinerator ash and managed at an off-site smelter for silver recovery.

Since the treatment plant is located approximately 130 feet below the site operations, the velocity head of the flow is reduced in a hydroelectric turbine. Approximately 300-400 kw of electricity is produced in this operation. Significant foaming would occur in the primary plant if this turbine were not present to reduce this energy. Initial pH control is accomplished at this point, prior to primary treamtment.

The plant is equipped with a two million gallon storm tank to temporarily divert flows in excess of 54 MGD. The effluent from this tank is normally released to the primary plant when conditions permit. This tank can also be used to temporarily divert ,flow if a major spill occurs in the plant. Travel times through the sewer can be in excess of 30 minutes, allowing time to react.

The primary treatment process removes 60-70% of the suspended solids through clarification and thickening in three clarifiers. Retention time in the primary plant is approximately 2.5 hours. Thickened solids are drawn from the bottom of the clarifiers and stored for subsequent treatment.

Clarified wastewater leaves the primary treatment plant and passes through a neutralization chamber where the pH is adjusted to approximately neutral by addition of either caustic or sulfuric acid.

Secondary treatment is accomplished by two high rate biological trickling filters operated in series with three activated sludge systems. Each trickling filter can be operated independently. The biological filters are 68 feet in diameter and contain PVC packing 2 1 feet in depth. Due to space limitations at the treatment plant, it is intesting to note that the trickling filters were located on stanchions over two of the aeration basins. The two trickling filters can remove approximately 20 % of the BOD loadings.

The activated sludge portion of the secondary plant is performed in three aeration basins in parallel operation. Significant savings in operating expenses have been achieved by retrofitting these basins from submerged turbines jet aeration systems through reduced energy consumption and sludge generation.

to

This combination of trickling filters in series with the activated sludge systems allows for operational flexibility to match treatment capacity to changes in plant loadings. The outlet from each aeration basin goes to a

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clarifier to settle the activated sludge. Final effluent from the plant is directed through a chlorine contact chamber which is used on an as needed basis, for disinfection. Prior to discharge to the Genesee River, the water cascades over baffle plates to increase the dissolved oxygen level.

The secondary sludge is thickened from about 1% solids to approximately 5% by dissolved air flotation units. This thickened sludge is subsequently combined with primary sludge and applied to rotary drum vacuum filters where solids concentrations of approximately 20 to 25 % is achieved. The sludge is routinely incinerated in a multiple hearth incinerator, however the on-site combustible refuse incinerator provides the backup to this unit. Incinerator ash is shipped to a smelter for recovery of residual silver.

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