Water Pollution Control at the Rohm and
Haas Houston Plant
JOHN W. PARROT, Head, Design and Development Group
W. M. SMITH, Pollution Control Engineer
Rohm and Haas Company
Deer Park, Texas
INTRODUCTION
The Houston plant of the Rohm and Haas Company, which is located on the
Houston Ship Channel in Deer Park, Texas, began operations in 1948. The plant has
been expanded numerous times since its initial operation. At the present time it
employs approximately 850 persons and ships about 50 mil of pounds per month of
various organic chemicals. Principal raw materials for the plant operation are natural
gas and air. Intermediates and products manufactured at the plant include ammonia,
methanol, acetylene, alkyl amines, acrylic monomers, and nonionic surfactants.
Like the manufacturing plant, the waste water treatment facilities have been
expanded several times to keep pace with the quantity of wastes to be treated. The
first biological treatment unit, a trickling filter, was installed in 1959. A facility for
collecting and burning waste oils was added in 1967, and a major expansion of the
treatment plant was completed and put on stream near the end of 1968. The expansion included a thirty mil gal aerated lagoon with 1,500 hp of floating aerators.
Figure 1 is a photograph of the lagoon.
Figure 1-     Aerial view of aerated lagoon.
CHARACTERISTICS OF WASTE WATER
The waste water processed in the treatment plant is a complex solution of salts
and organic compounds. A typical chromatogram of a sample of the waste is shown
in Figure 2. The identities of 14 different peaks have been determined; these correspond to raw materials, intermediates, and products from the plant operation. About
60 per cent of the COD in the waste water can be attributed to known peaks; the
remaining 40 per cent is from unidentified peaks and from low molecular weight
polymers that do not elute on the chromatographic column. A summary of properties of the waste water is shown in Table I. About 85 per cent of the COD is
biodegradable, as determined by laboratory tests.
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