New Technology for Oil/Water Emulsion Treatment: Phases I and II

摘要

Air Force bases (AFBs) have numerous discharge streams from industrial processesthat contain high levels of oils and greases. These streams are nominally treated with oil/water separators (OWSs). Large numbers of OWSs at AFBs are targeted for replacement as they reach the end of their performance lives. The AFBs need reliable, high performance replacements to meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations on oily water discharges. The ACARDIS Geraghty Miller/Battelle Team (ABT) was contracted by the Armstrong Laboratory/Environics Directorate to identify and evaluate candidate technologies as replacements for existing OWSs. This report covers the Phase II Field Evaluation activities of the two-phase project. Under the Phase I activities it was determined that high technology/high cost solutions faced significant hurdles to implementation, and that existing units were probably not performing because of maintenance problems. Phase II was carried out to determine if this assumption was true, and if low cost solutions would perform adequately to meet regulatory standards. Several simple technologies and one high technology solution were operated in parallel on a aircraft wash rack discharge stream to compare performance. Technologies studied included a simple gravity separator, a gravity separator with coalescing media, a gravity separator with coalescing media and biological treatment, a clay filter system, and a high technology membrane filtration system were used. The results of the tests, along with economic analysis, are presented.