Investigation of Technologies for Hazardous Sludge Reduction at AFLC (Air Force Logistics Command) Industrial Waste Treatment Plants. Volume 1. Sodium Borohydride Treatment and Sludge Handling Technologies

摘要

Hazardous waste disposal costs have risen dramatically in recent years, making the volume of sludge generated by industrial waste treatment nearly as important as the quality of the effluent water. Because of the magnitude of the Air Force's aircraft maintenance mission, over a billion gallons of mixed industrial wastewater require treatment each year. The result of this operation is tens of thousands of tons of hazardous sludge requiring disposal. This project was initiated to examine treatment technologies that could reduce this sludge disposal burden. In addition to volume, factors such as operator expertise required, system operating and maintenance costs, and the ability of a given technology to treat a mixed industrial waste stream were considered. Available technologies were first screened from literature and then those deemed most promising were subjected to laboratory scale testing. The results of the literature search, laboratory testing, and a contractor suggested R&D program direction are reported in three volumes, as follows: Volume I: Sodium Borohydride Treatment and Sludge Handling Technologies volume reports on the laboratory scale testing results of all treatment technologies and some innovative sludge treatment methods. Sodium borohydride was the selected technology because not only is this technique capable of reducing the sludge volume by nearly 75 percent, the effluent water quality is better than can be achieved with the standard treatment methods.