The Treatment of Wastes at the
Rohm & Hass Company
F.  MAJEWSKI
Development Engineer
Rohm and Haas Company
Philadelphia, Pa.
It is unfortunate that few manufacturing processes are one hundred percent efficient. Waste always seems to be produced regardless
of how efficient a manufacturing process seems to be. The machine shop
produces metal turnings and waste oil; the sawmill, sawdust and scrap;
the power plant, flue gases and ashes; the chemical plant a mixture of
tars and aqueous organic or inorganic wastes. These are just a few.
New products are developed and these present new and even more
aggravating waste disposal problems that seem to never end.
Like the machine shop, the Rohm & Haas Company also produces
waste. The treatment of these wastes have always been a matter of very
considerable concern since the Bristol plant is located on the Delaware
River whose waters are used for drinking, recreation, transportation
and industrial processes. The company has always been keenly aware
of their share of the responsibility to keep the river free from pollution which would render it unfit for use.
The Rohm & Haas Company has four plants—one at Bristol, Pennsylvania; a second at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; a third at Houston,
Texas; and a fourth at Knoxville, Tennessee. The primary concern
in this discussion is the facilities provided at the Bristol plant, although
equal cognizance is given problems of waste treatment at the other
operating plants.
The methods used in solving the waste treatment problems depend
upon the nature of the process which created the waste and upon
whether the waste is a solid, liquid or gas. In some cases the treatment
of waste material results in the production of useful by-products, but
more frequently the waste treatment project entails the spending of
large amounts of money with no probability of financial return.
The first unit for waste treatment at the Bristol plant was installed
in 1930. Seven years later additional facilities were installed and from
that time on, as production at the plant has increased and the problems
have become more complex, the program for providing for proper treat-
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