Section 7.    OIL WASTES
OIL WASTE TREATMENT AND RECLAMATION
IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
Brian D. Harlow, Plant Engineering Supervisor
Kokomo Transmission Plant
Chrysler Corporation
Kokomo, Indiana 46901
James W. Hubbell, Vice President
Thomas M. Doran, Project Engineer
Hubbell, Roth, o& Clark, Inc.
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48013
Industrial waste treatment can be a costly component of a manufacturing operation.
Usually, the decision to pretreat a process waste is due to federal, state or local regulations
or is in the interest of maintaining good public relations.
The costs of operating an industrial waste treatment plant and the importance of the
plant in terms of achieving effluent limitations and affecting public perception of the industry should encourage frequent evaluation of the process.
Can the process be made more efficient and more flexible? Where are potential cost
savings?
At the Chrysler Kokomo Transmission Plant, a concerted effort to answer these questions
was made by Plant Engineering, corporate staff, the chemical supplier and the consulting
engineer.
The treatment process for industrial wastes at the Chrysler Kokomo plant has evolved
over a 20-year period. The original treatment process and the modifications that have been
made will be described in this chapter. Observations concerning the effectiveness of these
modifications and cost comparisons between the original treatment process and the modified treatment process will be presented.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ORIGINAL TREATMENT PROCESS
The Chrysler Corporation manufactures die cast aluminum transmission housings and
manifolds at the casting plant and assembles the transmissions at the transmission plant
in Kokomo, Indiana. The area of the casting plant is approximately 419,000 square feet
and the area of the transmission plant is approximately 1,935,000 square feet.
The industrial waste treatment plant is required to reduce the concentration of Freon-
extractable compounds to less than 50 mg/l prior to discharge to the Kokomo sanitary
sewer. The influent concentration of Freon-extractable compounds averages approximately
10,000 mg/l and approximately 85% are soluble in the wastewater. Oils on the waste can
be attributed to either in-plant operations or site related operations. Waste oils are generated by manufacturing activities within each plant. Also, a large percentage of the oil which
collects on plant property and is washed into the plant storm sewer system is contained
and removed at the treatment plant.
Below grade structures on the plant, 60- and 66-in.-diameter storm sewers intercept
all dry weather flow and small storm flow from the site. These structures contain a weir
and a baffle which minimizes the discharge of insoluble oil when the water level rises above
the weir. Submersible pumps are used to pump dry weather flow and water contained by
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