START-UP AND OPERATION OF A 20-MGD GRANULAR
ACTIVATED CARBON TREATMENT FACILITY
Anton C. Marek, Jr., Chief Sanitary Engineer
Michael A. Pikulin, Department Engineer
American Cyanamid Company
Organic Chemicals Division
Bound Brook, New Jersey 08805
INTRODUCTION
The Bound Brook, New Jersey plant of American Cyanamid Company is located on
the Raritan River in Central New Jersey and is one of the largest organic chemical
manufacturing facilities in the United States.   The plant employs 2,400 persons and
produces over 1,000 different chemical products including dyes, chemical intermediates,
plastics additives, pigments, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, agricultural chemicals, elastomers and rubber chemicals.   An overwhelming majority of the products manufactured
are by batch operations and result in an everchanging and seldom duplicated product
mix.
The mixed effluent streams from the production operations are combined with non-
contact cooling water, sanitary sewerage and storm water runoff from the manufacturing
area to form a single effluent stream.   This effluent, which is a medium strength, highly
acidic waste stream, is processed in an existing wastewater treatment facility consisting
of primary, secondary and advanced wastewater treatment.   Typical ranges of the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon
(TOC) and color of the raw wastewater are shown in Table I.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TREATMENT
Figure 1 shows a flow diagram of the existing primary and secondary treatment
facilities.   The primary treatment plant consisting of a 19-MG capacity equalization
basin, a lime neutralization facility with a capacity to neutralize an equivalent of 80
tons of sulfuric acid per day and a 60-MG primary settling basin, were constructed in
the late 1930s.   Major modifications to the original primary treatment plant have been
the addition in 1975 of a   55-MG   capacity lined lagoon for onsite storage of primary
solids dredged from the primary settling basin, and the construction in 1977 of a new
raw waste pumping station which has a peak pumping capacity of 45 MGD.
The activated sludge plant was placed in operation in 1958 and was designed as an
extended aeration facility utilizing step aeration for the introduction of the industrial
wastewater [1,2].   The plant consists of six aeration basins with a total aeration capacity of 20 MG, six 80-ft diameter circular clarifiers and a chlorination facility.   In
addition to treating up to 22 MGD of industrial waste, the secondary plant provided
biological treatment for up to 5 MGD of primary treated wastewaters from a local
municipal authority [3].   Our 20-year contract with the municipal authority expired in
September 1977 and their wastewaters were not included in the design of our advanced
wastewater treatment facilities.
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