Treatment of Two Coke Plant Wastewaters
To Meet Guideline Criteria
CARL E. ADAMS, JR., President
ROBERT M. STEIN, Project Engineer
W.WESLEY ECKENFELDER, JR., Chairman of the Board
Associated Water and Air Resources Engineers
Nashville, Tennessee 37215
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Coke plant effluents have traditionally been cited for discharging toxic constituents
and have been considered relatively difficult to treat. The federal guidelines, which have
recently been issued, express the allowed discharge of constituents in pounds of
contaminant per ton of coke produced. These values are shown in Table 1 along with the
approximate concentration, considering 150 gallons of wastewater generated per ton of
coke produced. The best practical control technology currently available (BPCTCA)
guidelines, which consider best practical treatment to be biological, do not appear to be
stringent by comparison with typical effluents from biological treatment facilities treating
organic chemicals wastestreams. The concentrations shown in Table I infer that the
respective coke plant has a flow of 150 gallons per ton of production. This is not always the
case and could cause problems with coke plants which have a larger water use even though
they are observing strict in-plant water conservation.
TABLE I
EPA GUIDELINES BY-PRODUCT COKE
Level I
Level II
lbs/ton
mg/1
lbs/ton
mg/1
Cvanide
0.0438
35.0
0.0002
0.16
Phenol
0.003
2.4
0.0004
0.32
Ammonia
0.1824
145.8
0.0084
6.7
BOD
0.219
175
0.0166
13.2
Sulfide
—
—
0.0002
0.16
Oil and Grease
0.0218
17.4
0.0084
6.7
TSS
0.073
58.3
0.0084
6.7
pH
6.0 to 9.0
6.0 to 9.0
The two coke plants which are discussed herein are completely independent of each
other and are owned and operated by two separate managements. Because of similarities
observed during treatability studies on the wastestreams from these two plants, it was felt
appropriate to discuss relative comparisons in a single paper.
Associated Water and Air Resources Engineers, Inc. (AWARE) of Nashville,
Tennessee were retained to develop a wastewater management program for the two coke
plants considering best practical treatment as defined by the EPA guidelines. The relative
productions of the two plants, designated Plant A and Plant B, were 2,700 and 2,100 tons of
coke per day, respectively.
This paper discusses the production processes and sources of wastewater which were
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