Achieving wastewater treatment compliance

In the manufacture, maintenance, and cleaning of aircraft, the aerospace industry must meet federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local wastewater requirements for effluent. Failing to do so can result in severe fines that quickly escalate.

Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA has identified 65 pollutants and classes of pollutants as toxic, of which 126 specific substances have been designated priority toxic pollutants.

Typically, manufacturing military or commercial aircraft, jet engines, helicopters, or specialized parts can involve using process rinse water. This can be used while producing, deburring, or finishing aluminum, titanium, or composite parts. Water is also used for plating metals, molding composites, and manufacturing electronics. For example, in defense, to improve wear and tolerance, aerospace components can use cyanide cadmium plating, a process that produces a toxic waste that must be treated.

In addition, in the maintenance and cleaning of aircraft, washing may be used to rid everything from components to aircraft fleets of any dirt, debris, or residues that could degrade performance or aesthetics. For commercial airlines, even running onboard amenities such as toilets and sinks can produce wastewater.

These uses require installing a wastewater treatment system that effectively separates contaminants from the water so it can be legally discharged into sewer systems or even re-used.

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However, traditional wastewater treatment systems can be complex, often requiring multiple steps, a variety of chemicals, and a considerable amount of labor. Even when the process is supposedly automated, too often technicians must still monitor the equipment in person. This usually requires oversight of mixing and separation, adding chemicals, and other tasks required to maintain the process. Even then, the water produced can still fall below mandated requirements.

Although paying to have wastewater hauled away is an option, it’s extraordinarily expensive. In contrast, it’s much more cost effective to treat the industrial wastewater at its source, so treated effluent can go into a sewer and treated sludge passes a toxicity characteristics leaching procedure (TCLP) test and can be disposed of as non-hazardous waste in a local landfill.

Fortunately, complying with EPA and local wastewater regulation has become much easier with fully automated wastewater treatment systems. Such systems not only reliably meet regulatory wastewater requirements, but also significantly reduce the cost of treatment, labor, and disposal when the proper Cleartreat® separating agents are also used.

Automated wastewater treatment
In contrast to labor-intensive multiple-step processes, automated wastewater treatment can help to streamline production, usually with a one-step process, while lowering costs.

An automated wastewater treatment system can eliminate the need to monitor equipment in person while complying with EPA and locally mandated requirements. Such automated systems separate suspended solids, emulsified oil, and heavy metals, and encapsulate the contaminants, producing an easily de-waterable sludge in minutes, according to aerospace industry consultants at Sabo Industrial Corp., a New York-based manufacturer, distributor, and integrator of industrial waste treatment equipment and solutions, including batch and fully automated systems, Cleartreat separating agents, bag filters, and accessories.

The water is separated using a de-watering table or bag filters before it is discharged into sewer systems or further filtered for re-use as process water. Other options for de-watering include using a filter press or rotary drum vacuum. The resulting solids are non-leachable and are considered non-hazardous, so will pass all required testing.

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These systems are available as manual batch processors, semi-automatic, automatic, and can be designed as a closed-loop system for water reuse or provide a legally dischargeable effluent suitable for the sewer system. A new, fully customized system is not always required. In many cases, it can be faster and more cost effective to add to or modify a facility’s current wastewater treatment systems when this is feasible.

However, because every wastewater stream is unique to its industry and application, each wastewater treatment solution must be suited to or specifically tailored to the application. The first step in evaluating the potential cost savings and effectiveness of a new system is to sample the wastewater to determine its chemical make-up, followed by a full review of local water authority requirements, say aerospace industry consultants at Sabo Industrial.

The volume of wastewater to be treated is also analyzed, to determine if a batch unit or flow-through system is required. Other considerations include size restrictions, to make sure the system fits within the facility’s available footprint.

Separating agents
Despite all the advances in automating wastewater treatment equipment, any such system requires effective separating agents to agglomerate with wastewater solids so they can be safely and effectively separated out.

Because of the importance of separating agents for wastewater treatment, Sabo Industrial uses a special type of bentonite clay in its ClearTreat line of wastewater treatment chemicals. These wastewater treatment chemicals are formulated to break oil and water emulsion, provide heavy metals removal, and promote flocculation, agglomeration, and suspended solids removal.

Bentonite has a large specific surface area with a net negative charge that makes it a particularly effective adsorbent and ion exchange for wastewater treatment applications to remove heavy metals, organic pollutants, nutrients, etc. Bentonite is essential to effectively encapsulate these materials, which can usually be achieved in one-step treatment, lowering process and disposal costs.

In contrast, systems that use polymer-based products do not encapsulate the toxins, so are more prone to having waste products leach out through time or upon further agitation.

Today’s automated systems, along with the most effective Cleartreat separating agents, can provide industrial facilities with an easy, cost-effective alternative so they remain compliant with local ordinances and the EPA. Although there is a cost to these systems, they don’t require much attention and can easily be more economical than paying fines or hauling.

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