Development of a Water Management Plan
For An Acid Manufacturing Plant
THOMAS H. PATTON, Jr., Vice President
WILLIAM C. WOOD, President
Waste Water Engineers, Inc.
Nashville, Tennessee 37211
RANDHIR C. CHOPRA, Process Engineering Manager
Chemical Separation Corporation
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
INTRODUCTION
This study is concerned with the development of a water management plan for an acid
manufacturing plant which is a portion of a munitions manufacturing complex. The principal waste stream consisted of dilute sulfuric acid along with cooling tower blowdown and
boiler feedwater treatment blowdowns. This study is a portion of an overall modernization
program which when completed will have converted the TNT production process from the
present batch operation to a continuous one.
The dawning of the environmental age directed considerable attention to the treatment
of the waste ensuing from these facilities. This was enhanced by both the establishment of
the Environmental Protection Agency and the standards which had subsequently
promulgated, plus the effluent standards as established by the Army for its installations.
These revised regulations are generally far more constraining than those previously
associated with the industrial waste discharges and require an unusually high quality
effluent. These effluent requirements are summarized in Table I.
TABLE I
EFFLUENT REQUIREMENT SUMMARY
Parameters
mg/l
Calcium
100
Magnesium
30
Sodium
100
Zinc
0.5 (0.05)*
Chloride
150 (250)*
Chromate
1.0(0.1)*
Phosphate
0.5
Sulfate
200 (250)*
*EPA modifications
The program consisted of three phases as follows: 1) A practical and economical
evaluation of the feasibility of various unit processes and combinations of unit processes; 2)
Laboratory and bench scale evaluation of the unit operation which appears to offer the best
economic solution; and 3) Field-scale pilot evaluation of the treatment process and
development of a water management plan including economic analyses.
FEASIBILITY STUDY
The initial phase consisted of determining the characteristics of the various waste
streams and investigating the feasibility of various unit processes both from a practical and
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