There is almost no activity in the industry that would not output oil-products, oily emulsions or colloid oil containing waste waters, that due to environment protection reasons the plants are to handle as hazardous wastes.
During the development work an electrochemical procedure and a new type of apparatus have been achieved. The apparatus thickens and recovers the oil and other colloid content of industrial waste waters on-site. Dual benefit is attained through the application of our technology: on one hand, the ecological impact of oily contaminants is eliminated, on the other hand, water consumption of industrial sites can be significantly reduced by reusing the purified industrial water. Management costs of the polluted water are cut down, as well.
The equipment is capable of reducing the colloid content of industrial waste waters – containing oil emulsions and other colloids – to lower than 5 mg/l level, which is currently the official emission limit in the EU. At the same time, other properties of the water are enhanced, as well.
Simultaneously, the chemical oxygen demand and the floating particle content of the water is decreased, while the organic soluble extract content and the pH of the water can be set to the desired threshold limit. During the treatment, the hardness of technological waters usually drops to a normal level (post-process average is 15 German hardness degree), which brings the well known advantages to all users and technologies.
Major application areas of the equipment:
- Breaking of oil emulsions in general, cleaning of oil containing waste waters
- Water cleaning at machine shops / manufacturing sites, e.g. in the automobile industry
- Water cleaning at car wash / car repair stations
- Remediation of polluted environments at around oil refineries and oil storage tanks by cleaning the polluted formation waters nearby (cleaning of oil polluted leechates)
- Lowering of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of pharmaceutical industry waste waters
- Lowering of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of food industry waste waters
- Lowering of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of waste waters by removing the floating organic particle content of them
- Pre-cleaning of natural waters intended for human or industrial consumption by removing the mud and humic acid content
The flow-through apparatus is fully automated and is easy to set up. It does not need permanent operator attendance, only refilling of the tank of the pH regulator needs roughly five minutes of work per work shift. The apparatus gives an audio alarm if the tank of the pH regulator becomes empty, and wastewater pumping is halted automatically until the pH regulator liquid is refilled again. The apparatus is made entirely from corrosion resistant materials, except for its working electrodes that dwindle slowly during operation. Waste water processing capacity of the apparatus can be adjusted to the customers needs during the design step. Each apparatus can be tailor made to individual needs, especially with regard to the available on-site space. The apparatus consits of the following sub-units: hydro-cyclone solid particle separator, low power feed pump, regenerative heat exchanger, pH adjuster, electrochemical reactors with cone shaped sedimentators, clean water tank, collector trays for the separated waste, power supply, electronic control box, and data collector system. The apparatus can be a fixed installation or can be ordered built into standard containers.
The pollution that is separated from the water has a dense, air dry consistency. It is collected in a tray located at the bottom of the equipment, from where it is to be dumped according to regulations of hazardous wastes. In most applications, some 85% of the cleaned water is suitable for recycle or for re-use without installing any additional equipment (e.g. at washing stations), therefore, our apparatus has the dual financial benefit of reducing freshwater consumption and of waste water handling costs (e.g. transportation costs or sewage fee). Thus, annual water related costs may be reduced by about 85 %. Natural waters (e.g. water of rivers or wells) cleaned by our apparatus can be made suitable for human consumption if a desinfectioning step is added.
Application of our apparatus significantly reduces clear-water consumption. While the transportation cost of 1 m3 of waste water may be at around 110 USD on todays Hungarian prices, the same volume of water can be purified for a mere 1.1 USD. Since about 85% of the purified water can be recycled or re-used, considerable water related costs can be spared, not to mention the compliance with the environmental regulations.
Area requirement: dimensions of a 600 litres/hr capacity equipment: 0.35 m x 0. 22 m x 0.27 m. Capacity in the same dimensions may be increased up to 2500 litres/hr depending on the quality of the feed water.
Electricity requirement is about 0.2 – 0.3 kW*hr/m3. The apparatus uses three-phase electric power (400V, 50 Hz). Connections: waste water feed, cleaned water outlet, electricity.
The apparatus is to be installed at frostless, indoor locations.
