CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL TREATABILITY OF
HIGH WATER CONTENT FLUIDS USED BY FORD MOTOR COMPANY
Shin Joh Kang, Head, Adv. Technology
Lucy Benkeser Pugh, Project Engineer
McNamee, Porter and Seeley
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Philip Lawrence, Environmental Engineer
Ford Motor Company
Dearborn, Michigan 48121
BACKGROUND
Ford Motor Company has employed various trial programs using High Water Content Fluids
(HWCF's) as replacements for conventional petroleum-base soluble oils and hydraulic oils at machining plant locations. HWCF's may be either true synthetic fluids, which are fluids that do not contain
any petroleum oil materials, or semi-synthetics, which do contain some oil material. The HWCF's,
called microemulsions, can be synthetic or semi-synthetic. Vegetable oil products are used in some
HWCF's in lieu of petroleum oil.
HWCF's have been considered for use in manufacturing operations to evaluate their long-term
cost savings potential in the form of extended coolant/fluid life, improved parts quality, longer tool
life, fire resistance, improved component wear characteristics and improved work-place atmosphere.
It has been repeatedly demonstrated, however, that discharge of most HWCF's to industrial oily
waste treatment facilities at Ford has adversely affected the treatment process in the form of:
1) increased treatment chemical cost; 2) longer treatment cycle time; 3) decreased treatment efficiency;
and 4) increased concentration of water soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the treated
effluent.
Wastewater flows at machining plants where HWCF's are most often used average about 0.5 to
0.75 mgd. All Ford machining plant locations have oily wastewater treatment facilities designed to
remove free-floating and soluble oils (emulsified) from the plants' effluent. The chemical treatment
methods used at Ford machining locations include the Ford Windsor and Modified Windsor Processes, and, at some older locations, the typical ferric and lime coagulation/precipitation process.
These processes have been detailed in other reports [1]. They have not been designed to remove water
soluble COD. The Windsor and Modified Windsor processes are briefly discussed later in this report.
From a wastewater treatment standpoint, Ford needed to know: 1) the impact on chemical pre-
treatment from each broad group of chemical constituents that commonly formulate HWCF's; and
2) the feasibility of installing company-operated biological facilities to lower the residual COD after
chemical pretreatment at some plant locations.
The objectives of this study were to: 1) determine the impact of various HWCF's on chemical
pretreatment using the Ford Windsor and Modified Windsor treatment process; and 2) establish
biological treatability characteristics of selected HWCF's based on their residual organic strength
(COD) after chemical pretreatment has occurred.
SCOPE
Twelve HWCF's were selected for this study. They were chosen based on their past, current, or
highly probable future use in Ford manufacturing operations. Each fluid was categorized under a
broad chemical group, based on its primary components. The groups consisted of one glycol, two
borate amines, two alcohol amines, three fatty acids and four microemulsions. Some of the fluids
were coolants for machining, and some were designed for hydraulic fluid applications.
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