PA State Waste Fieduction Center

Waste Reductian Makes $enSe . Pr

(suspended solids), and matter dissolved chemi- cally into the water (dissolved solids).

Suspended solids can be effectively removed 0

Mr. Merrillhderson, P.E.

Mr. Anderson worked 42 years in the design, construction and operation of industrial plant utility systems. A mechanical engineer by education, he recently retired from Logan Aluminum in Russellville, KY where he was in charge of the operation of a multi-million dollar water and waste treatment system.

In nature there is no such thing as "pure" water. Pure water has an affinity for almost every- thing with which it comes into contact. Rain fall- ing to earth picks up contaminants out of the air. Once it reaches the ground it gets more impur- ities by dissolving elements out of the soil and rocks. In most cases this "natural" water requires some form of treatment or conditioning before it can be used for human consumption or as an in- dustrial commodity.

A water treatment plant is simply a process or series of processes designed to remove or re- duce unwanted impurities held by the water to a level of ~ n ~ n t ~ a ~ i o n compatible with its intend- ed end use. Water treatment systems vary from simple filter plants to highly complex combina- tions of clarifiers, ion exchangers, reverse osmo- sis or other types of ultrafiltration.

Impurities in water exist in two forms: insolu- ble particles of solid material held in suspension

by filtration. Filter design depends on particle size. A single media sand filter is effective for re- moving particles above 30 microns. Multi-media filters using different grades (sizes) or types of sand (e.g. quartz, silica) and anthracite coal will remove 10-15 micron sized particles. Filter aids, which are coagulating chemicals or polymers fed prior to a filter will, in some cases, improve its efficiency.

For removal of color and colloidal solids, a process of coagulation, flocculation and sedimen- tation is required. Coagulation is the process of destabilization by charge neutralization. Once neutralized, particles that tend to repel each other can be brought together. Flocculation is the pro- cess of bringing the coagulated particles together. Sedimentation is the settling out of the floc so that it can be removed. Dissolved solids can be re- moved two ways: bv DreciDitation or bv ion ex-

Inside-.. Medical Waste ............................................................. 3

Advancements In Solvent Recycling .......................... 4

EducationUpdate ....................................................... 4

WasteReductionfor S p i f i c Industries .................... 5

Industrial Case Study .................................................. 6

KPSeminar,KPReceives EPAGrant ...................... 7

ProfessionalProfile ..................................................... 8 I

change. Precipitation is a process where chemi- cals are used to reduce the solubility of the un- wanted contaminants, causing them to precipitate out of solution. There are different types of pre- cipitation processes used depending on the de-

reatment effluent. Calcium , aluminum sulfate (alum) and e (soda ash) are the most com-

monly used additives. Precipitation is a softening process to reduce the hardness. A limehoda ash process will result in a water quality that contains 35-60 parts per million (ppm) of total calcium and magnesium hardness. While this is satisfacto- ry for domestic use, most industrial water, espe- cially feed water for steam boilers, requires a much higher quality.

Ion exchange processes have replaced precipi- tation in the treatment of most industrial process water. This has been primarily because of its low- er initial cost and the production of higher quality water. Salts dissolved in water dissociate to form charged particles called ions. Positively charged ions are known as cations. Negatively charged ions are called anions. The term "soft" water is used to describe water that has had only the ca- tions removed. Demineralized or deionized water has had both cations and anions removed. Ion ex- changers are materials that can exchange one ion for another, hold it temporarily, then release it to a regenerate solution.

Ion exchange has become a science within a science. Researchers have developed exchange

materials called resins for use in a broad variety of processes. Probably the most widely used to produce softened water for industrial uses is the sodium zeolite process. If the raw water supply has a high natural alkalinity then a combination of sodium zeolite and hydrogen zeolite is com- monly used. A sodium zeolite softener uses a strongly acidic cation exchange resin made of a specially formulated polystyrene (zeolite). The water to be softened flows through a column cun- taining a bed of this resin and the exchange of so- dium ions for calcium and magnesium ions takes place. The quantity of resin in the column is deter- mined by the cation hardness in the raw water and the desired quantity of water to be produced. When the supply of sodium ions on the resin beads is exhausted it must be regenerated. An ap- proximate 10% sodium chloride salt solution is tsed in the regeneration process. Regeneration ex- changes calcium and magnesium ions for so- dium. The hardness cations are then removed from the softening unit through to waste brine and rinse water streams.

In a hydrogen zeolite process, calcium, mag- nesium and sodium ions associated with alkalin- ity are exchanged for hydrogen ions. Regenera- tion is accomplished using a 2% to 5% solution of sulfuric acid. The production of deionized water requires the use of at least one strongly a- cidic cation exchange and one anion exchange resin. The anion exchange can be either weakly or strongly basic depending on the desired efflu- ent quality.

The demineralizing process can be accom- plished in a system where separate vessels are used for the two types of exchange resin. Recent process development permits mixing of the two resins in a single vessel. In either case, sulfuric acid is required to regenerate the cation resin and caustic soda is required for the anion regenera- tion.

treatment and conditioning of water prior to its use. The treatment of waste water after its use can be much more complex and will be the sub- ject of an article in the next issue of the W m L E

This article has presented some basics for the

Dr. Jackie Swigart, President, JackieSwigart, Inc., Louisville, KY

The disposal of medical waste has been thrust

ther waste washed up on the As a result, in November,

1988, Congress passed the Medical Waste Track- ing Act, a pilot project designed to determine how seven states handle their medical wastes from beginning to end. Five states ultimately par- ticipated in and will be Health Impl~cations of Medical Wastes".

requirements for medical waste generators than required by federal law. In some states, new air quality standards are forcing hospitals to invest in costly equipment to retrofit or replace on-site in- cinerators. The stigma of negative publicity has caused some hospitals to classify all their waste as infectious and dispose of it in specially marked red bags. According to the Hospital Asso- ciation of Pennsylvania, disposal costs went from $250,000 to $1 million since regulations went into effect in that state.

The Kentucky Division of Waste approached the issue a few years ago by creating an Infec- tious Waste Task Form which surveyed doctors, dentists, nursing homes, vet~rinarians and others to determine how they handle their medical

into the public arena by the discovery of sy-

ect which i s now completed to Congress as "The Public

Today, 44 states have adopted more stringent

wastes. Their intent was to educate the personnel handling the waste to recognize what was infec- tious waste (any solid or liquid waste capable of producing an infection), hazardous waste and gen- eral refuse and deal with it according to govern- ment rules and regulations. The disposal method most commonly used was landfilling according to the survey. Many hospitals autoclave their in- fectious waste in order to destroy any disease pro- ducing organisms before it is disposed of by in- cineration or landfilling. An autoclave is a closed

of equipment that destroys most organisms under moist heat, high temperature and pressure.

Solutions to this problem are difficult mainly because of the numbers of people involved in the creation and disposal of medical waste. Landfills are becoming extremely sensitive to what they will accept and the public resists incineration methods although this technology is currently be- lieved to be the safest under optimum operating conditions. Certification programs for handlers of medical wastes have been proposed by the Asso- ciation for the Safe Handling of Biomedical Wastes which was established in 1989 and has of- fices in Washington, DC and Tulsa, OK

Baltimore-based Medicare Waste Associates provides a system for the collection, tracking and incineration of all hospital waste where the need for segregating the waste is eliminated. Cost sav- ings are realized by a 20 year contract which en- ables the rates to remain stable. Hospitals can also reduce their costs by properly educating their personnel about how to handle the wastes. Management plans are being utilized in New Jer- sey and New York as well as a few hospitals in Kentucky to educate personnel how to reduce, re- cycle and separate their wastes.

As with other industries, costs of disposal will force the medical community to analyze their waste disposal practices in order affect cost sav- ings. How they do it, will depend on the attitude of government and the public in their willingness to determine the safest, most cost effective means of disposal of medical wastes. As with all envi- ronmental issues, this one can only be solved by all of us working together for an acceptable solu- tion.

4

Adwancements In Solvent Recy c I i n g

A process for the recycling of a spent solvent stream will soon make its debut at Akzo Coatings Inc. at their Louisville plant on Crittenden Drive.

A closed pipe system uses scraped-wall batch stills to separate the feed into volatile solvents and a non-volatile sludge. The former are fed to a traditional distillation system which recovers one valuable solvent at a relatively pure concentration while collecting the others for reuse as a wash sol- vent mixture.

The sludge is fed to a new molten salt oxida- tion system which converts the organic com- pounds to carbon dioxide and water, leaving the inorganic pigments as a recoverable solid residue. This part of the process is based on a patented pro- cess for the destruction of organic compounds containing PCB’s, although none of these com- pounds are present in the Akzo waste stream. The heat of oxidation is recovered by a hot oil recircu- lation system to drive the distillation processes. Final implementation of the salt bath process is pending EPA determination as exempt from part B permit requirements under Resource Conserva- tion and Recovery Act (RCRA).

Custom Recovery Services (CRS) of Louis- ville has designed and fabricated this initial facil- ity at Akzo. A research team from the Depart- ment of Chemical Engineering, University of Louisville, has been retained by Akzo to charac- terize and optimize the operation of this batch-continuous hybrid process.

rative effort into which the coatings industry, equipment manufacturers, and the University have entered to address a recycling problem of common interest and concern. Hopefully, the ben- efits of such a study will make the process even more valuable to other companies.

For additional information on solvent recy- cling refer to Waste Reduction for Specific Indus- tries on page 5.

This project is another example of the collabo-

tion For fi

This is part 2 of the article. Part 1 appeared in the Fall 1990 issue of 7Be Warehke For further infomation on tliis and otber articles contact tbe KP o ~ c e . ?&- 0~

Because some industrial cleaning solvents have hazardous properties, industry is encour- aged to find methods of el~minating or decreasing the use of these solvents. The following is a brief outline of some methods that can be used to ac- complish this goal. manufacturer or company should choose the most viable method for its purposes.

e i n d ~ v i d ~ ~ equipment

~ n s e ~ a t ~ o n of solvent use can be accom- plished by making minor changes in housekeep- ing, operating practices an modification of ex- isting equipment. Standa on involves mini- mizing the number of different solvents used. This decreases the chance of a mixed waste stream (which is undesirable for recycling), makes inventory control easier and decreases the chance of spoilage.

: If spills occur frequently at your plant concentrating on ways to reduce these will decrease your solvent use quickly. Keep sol- vents in a storage area when not in use and devel-

out affecting product quality? Maximize the dedi- cation of process equipment to eliminate the need to clean between batches.

emove as much prod- sing equipment as possible be-

fore using the cleani~g solvent to reduce the a- mount needed. This can be accomplished by in- creasing the drain time of product from the tank or by using a mechanical method such as wipers

will decrease the

cleaning: a primary tank is used to remove the bulk of contaminants and a secondary tank Con- taining relatively clean solvent is used to remove any light contaminants remain~ng. When the sec- ondary tank gets dirty its Contents are used as

for the primary tank and fresh solvent is add-

: For vapor degreas- ers increasing the freeboard height and the instal- lation of a cooling system will decrease the evap- oration rate of the solvent.

nipment Layout: Make sure that there are no heaters or air turbulence near the cleaning tanks. These increase the solvent’s evaporation rate.

on: Evaporation units are readily a- vailable to recover most solvents. The impurities remain in the still bottoms and need disposal. For some recovered solvents (such as chlorinated), ad- ditives are necessary before reuse.

tion: Solvent-laden sludge is fil- tered through a series of membranes with small pore sizes (approx. 0.1 microns) obtaining a pur- ified solvent.

lity: Increase potential recy- due contamination such as

mixing of incompatible solvents or water drag. Water may cause hydrochloric acid to form ren- dering the solvent unusable. Removing sludge of-

increase the cleaning life of the solvent. ent: Allow the contaminants to settle

rganizations pub- lish a listing of types and quantities of wastes a- vailable from or wanted by other companies. A fresh or used solvent that you no longer need may be desired by some other company.

Present studies to determine viable solvent al- ternatives hopefully will conclude with more op- tions available in the future. In the mean time sol- vent use can be reduced by the implementation of some of the above methods.

,

us

Kentucky Paint Manufacturing Governor’s Award for Waste

uction Efforts Editor’s note: Kentucky Paint Manufacturing has ap- proved the text below and its publication in this n m - letter.

BACKGROUND: Kentucky Paint Manu- facturing Company in Lexington, KY. recently received the Governor’s award for their highly successful waste reduction efforts. The award was presented at the 14th annual Environmen- tal Conference in Frankfort.

farm and fence coatings. The company em- ploys approximately 50 employees and manu- factures over 250 products. Ky. Paint’s philoso- phy has been to provide the public with the very best paint while maintaining their position as responsible members of the community. Therefore, the company decided in the early 1980’s to institute an aggressive waste mini- mization and recycling policy.

PROCESS: Ky. Paint has an on-site re- search and development laboratory. The manu- facturing process is batch oriented using high speed mixers and mixing tanks. Approximately 30-35% of their products are solvent based, the remaining being water based.

WASTESTREAMMANAGEMENT METHODS: The first step in Ky Paint’s pro- gram was to identify the waste streams present within the facility and to categorize them as hazardous or nonhazardous. A supervisor was appointed to oversee the program and an indi- vidual was hired whose main responsibility would be implementation of the program. Spe- cial meetings were held in which all workers were advised of the program and encouraged to participate.

Solvent wastes are now saved in drums un- til they are recycled in future batches. During processing these solvents are used prior to the use of any virgin solvents. There often occurs a

Ky. Paint is a manufacturer of architectural,

settling of the suspended solids during storage requiring the clear solvent to be decanted off for reuse. The oil sludge is consolidated and re- manufactured as a component of formulations for metal primers.

Ky. Paint has a permit which allows dis- charge of waste water from the latex paint man- ufacture into the sewer system. However, Ky. Paint has been able to reduce their water dis- charge to zero. The water is treated and re- turned to the manufacturing process. The solids removed from the treatments are remanufac- tured into a low cost maintenance paint.

The company is presently researching the solventhater mixtures to determine an alterna- tive use. If a use is found, Ky. Paint will be reusinglrecycling all the nonsolid waste generat- ed from their manufacturing processes. Nonhaz- ardous solid waste is no longer automatically landfilled, but rather recycled in-house or sold for reuse by another company. The funds gener- ated through the sale of these wastes are put into the employee incentive program.

efits that can be realized using textbook waste reduction techniques. These methods include those mentioned above regarding one individu- al to oversee the program and explaining the benefits of the program to the employees. Oth- er textbook methods being used are the follow- ing: Production scheduling efficiency is in- creased by manufacturing like products back to back to reduce clean up. Hazardous raw materi- als are eliminated or substituted with nonhaz- ardous. Inventory control is used to reduce the amount of hazardous wastes on the premises.

Ky. Paint’s corporate policy has changed from one of disposal to one of reuse. The com- pany has happier employees, a safer work- place, and contributes to a cleaner community.

RESULTS: This case study shows the ben-

I

The fourth annual seminar for industry and business in waste reduction techniques is sched- uled for Wednesday, April 17, 1991. Spon- sored by KY PARTNERS, the state waste re- duction center, the seminar will be held at the IExeCulive Inn West (across from Standiford Field Airport) in Louisville.

The topic for the all day seminar is

real life waste reduction programs (successes and failures) will be presented by national and local experts. An update om the mew Clean Air Act, relating to waste reduction, will also be dis- cussed. The cost will be $50.00/person and in- cludes hand out materials, lunch and a coffee mug manufactured from 100% recycled plastic.

The seminar brochure will be mailed in mid-February, 1991 to those on the mailing list for me wasleLr%lc: If you are not on this mail- ing list, and want to receive the seminar bro- chure, write KY PARTNERS, Room 312, Ernst Hall, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. 40292.

The Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) and KY PARTNERS recently received a model grant award from the US. EPA for $lOO,OOO to conduct waste reduction site visits to governmental agencies within the Louisville/Jef- ferson County metropolitan area.

The funding will allow MSD (the administra- tive agency for the grant) and KY PARTNERS to implement "waste reduction opportunities in the public sector." This project is designed to i- dentify and assess waste minimization and reduc- tion opportunities within city and county agen- cies. A selected group of independent or semi-independent major governmental agencies will serve as models for the assessment program.

MSD will act as the coordinating agency for a partnership consisting of MSD, KY PART- NERS, and the Ky. Natural Resources and Envi- ronmental Protection Cabinet (Division of Waste Management). The six 'retired' engineers with KY PARTNERS will conduct the site visits and a private consultant will prepare the documented project report. This model grant will be complet- ed at the end of 18- months, and the resultant re- port will as applicable to other cities in Kentucky as to the governmental agencies within the metro- politan area of Louisville. KY PARTNERS will take information garnered from this model grant and use the same for site visits to public agencies in little, middle and large cities within Kentucky.

FOR N *.. ... Pill o m f tkrk e a g p l a ~ ~ in cnvelopE amd mu%

Name:

Title:

Coapaay:

Addrcur:

Telephome amrber:( )

Type of bmsiaas or sewice:

Type of waste:

a

rphy has joined the KY P engineers" program. Re- tired from Qlin Corp. in Brandenburg, KY, Earl is a graduate of the University of North Al-

abama with dual degrees in chem- istry and biology. He is a certified wastewater treat- ment plant opera- tion and water works operator. In addition, Earl's industrial experience in-

Earl Murphy

cludes: industrial analytical chemistry, laborato- ry supervision, quality assurance, environmen- tal engineering and industrial waste disposal. After his retirement from Qlin, Earl worked with Allied Drum Co. in Louisville on waste

Crambacker has joined the KY PARTNERS staff as a Program Assistant, with specialization in computer technology. Andy graduated from Eastern Kentucky Univer- sity with a Bachelor of Science degree and re- cently received an Associates degree in Produc- tion Mana~ement from the University of Louis- ville. He is presently finishing, on a part time basis, an additional BS, this from the U of L School of Business in Computer Information

Systems. His previous work experience in- cludes government agencies, manufacturing supervision and retail management. Andy is a welcome addition to our staff.

KY PART- NERS is also pleased to an- nounce the co-op employ-

third year Chemical Engi-

Andy D. Cmmbacker neering major, from January 7 to May 17, 1991. Brian will assist in the devel- opment of industrial waste reduction "fact sheets" and research waste reduction alterna- tives which will be useful to Kentucky indus- tries and businesses. As appropriate, he will also accompany KY PAR?WERS retired engi- neers on some of their site assessments. At the end of his employment with us, Brian must write a mini-thesis on his professional activ- ities, detailing his work experience gained. In turn, we will evaluate his performance to Speed Scientific School.

Rm. 312. Emst Hall University of Louisville Louisville, KY 40292

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u. s. Postage

Permit No. 769 Louisville. KY