SBIR-STTR Award

The objective of this proposal is to determine the chemicaloperating parameters and control parameters required to design a NeutralPrecipitation/Cross Flow MicroFiltration waste water treatment unit forremoval of heavy metals from waste water generated in the metal finishingoperations generated at Department of Defense arsenals and depots. Theproposed waste water treatment process would permit treatment of the wastewater to much better effluent quality than conventional chromiumreduction/metal precipitation processes, while reducing the chemicaloperating costs and the sludge production. The sodium Sulfide/FerrousSulfate chromium reduction neutral metal precipitation process, is an AirForce patented process which has been demonstrated in an existingIndustrial Waste water Treatment Plant at Tinker AFB, OK. Implementation ofthe process resulted in an 80 percent reduction in sludge generation and 40percent reduction in chemical usage. Environmental Research andDevelopment, Inc. has an exclusive license to the process. The proposedtreatment process would couple this chromium reduction/metal precipitationprocess to a Cross Flow MicroFiltration solids removal unit. This proposaldescribes the Tasks required to determine the operating parameters, thecontrol parameters, and the system design.

Coupling metallic ion removal via Neutral Precipitation chromium reduction, metal precipitation process to MicroFiltration Cross-Flow membrane solid/liquid separation resulted in heavy metal removal to well below discharge requirements. In addition, the need for the flocculents (polymers) which can contribute to as much as 60 percent of the chemical costs were eliminated. At the Tobyhanna Army6 Depot IWTP, the chemical costs can be reduced by 80 percent while the sludge generation can be decreased by 75 percent with the use of the Neutal Precipitation Cross-Flow MicroFilteration process. The feasibility of metallic ion removal via neutral Precipitation Cross-Flow MicroFilteration has been demonstrated in the Phase I SBIR program. The objective of this Phase I SBIR is to design and construct a 10 gpm Neutral Precipitation Cross-Flow Filteration system, demonstrate the operation of the system at Tobyhanna Army Depot IWTP. Demonstration would include operation of the unit to determine the operating parameters, the membrane cleaning requirements, further development of the process control technologies, and determination of the process economics. This proposal describes the tasks required to determine the design parameters, and the control parameters and the demonstration of the process in a 10 gpm unit.