Sulfuric Acid Regeneration Waste Disposal Technology.
Abstract
All U.S. Army Ammunition Plants (AAPs) having sulfuric acid regeneration (SAR) facilities use lime precipitation as the principal means of acid wastewater neutralization. This is as an advanced system as is used in industrial practice. However, lime precipitation could not meet zero discharge of pollutants should these be promulgated for the sulfuric acid industry. In fact it discharges a water high in soluble sulfates. Further, based on the only current experience at Radford AAP, this process is plagued with: excessive scaling, poor pH and turbididty control, and excessive maintenance and downtime. One probable cause of these difficulties is excessive water loads from the SAR plants resulting in inadequate residence time for crystal formation and settling, coupled with the inherent slowness of this chemical reaction. However, it should be pointed out there is an almost total lack of operating data on the adequacy or inadequacy of these lime precipitation systems to meet even today's standards. Presumably because of concern at one time for soluble sulfate, two AAPs have secondary treatment: 1) ion exchange to remove the soluble calcium (Ca) and sulfate (SO4) ions (Volunteer AAP); and 2) barium (Ba) precipitation to remove the soluble SO4, followed by ion exchange (Joliet AAP). Secondary treatment would permit total recycle of the process water, thus achieving zero discharge; however, we question the utility of both of these systems in achieving any improvement in the total environment of the watersheds of the plants in question. Keywords: Acid Wastewater, Neutralization, Sulfric Acid Recycle, Lime Precipitation, Sulfric Acid, Water Recycle, Zero
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA178425
Entities
People
- Armand A. Balasco
- D. E. Johnson
- J. I. Stevens
- J. J. Stahr
- M. A. Fields
Organizations
- Arthur D. Little