Specialty Chemical Company, Virginia

The specialty chemical plant I work at in Southern Virginia began a new production facility beginning in 2000. Off-site disposal of the high brine (8% salt), high COD (120,000 mg/L) wastewater from the manufacturing operations were estimated at $1.5 million a year. Due to the high background non-volatile dissolved solids levels (60,000 – 80,000 mg/L) of the wastewater, conventional biological treatment technologies would have had difficulty meeting the effluent limits required for pre-treating the waste prior to disposal to a local municipal treatment plant.

The average influent wastewater characteristics are CODs of 120,000 mg/L; toluene = 400 mg/L; TDS levels approaching 80,000 mg/L and chloride levels = 4,000 mg/L. The goals of the pre-treatment system were to remove COD, BOD (<300 mg/L), and toluene (<0.028 mg/L) to pretreatment limits while minimizing the production of excess biological solids requiring processing and off-site disposal.

After performing bench-scale and pilot-scale treatability studies, PMC BioTec’s AFC technology was selected for pretreatment prior to discharge to the local municipal treatment plant. The system started up in April 2000. COD removals have consistently exceeded 90% with effluent BOD levels less than 100 mg/L and toluene levels less than 0.010 mg/L. Since start-up, the AFC system has treated over 15,000,000 pounds of COD with zero waste sludge production.

The PMC BioTec team worked closely with me during startup of the AFC system and continues to provide operational support when needed. I have been the lone operator responsible for the AFC system since startup and continue to monitor the system, including daily analytical testing. The cooperation and support provided by PMC BioTec has contributed to a successful project resulting in savings to our company of about $1 million annually compared to off-site disposal.

Ray Hardison
AFC Operator