Project Highlight #2

Client: Confidential (Chemical Manufacturer)
Location: Kentucky
Duration: 12 months
Description: A Kentucky chemical plant, which produced vinyl chloride from chlorine gas and ethylene dichloride, utilized an aged wastewater treatment system that included the lagoons as part of the process. When the plant constructed a new wastewater treatment system eight lagoons containing approximately 220,000 cubic yards of chemical waste solids required closure. A plan was developed to consolidate the chemical waste solids from seven lagoons containing organic waste into two landfill ‘cells’ built to RCRA specifications. The eighth lagoon containing inorganic waste was closed in-place. Bench scale tests were performed on samples of waste from the seven organic waste lagoons to determine the most efficient and economical reagent for treating the waste. The performance criteria included producing a structurally stable final product with no free liquids and a minimal volume increase. The remaining impoundment contained brine mud from caustic/chlorine production. This sludge was stabilized to insolubilize the mercury. The treatability study showed that the most effective treatment regimen for insolubilizing the mercury was to use a high sulfur flyash to precipitate the mercury as mercuric sulfide. During the project, approximately 55,000 tons of reagents were injected into 220,000 cubic yards of sludge.

Representative Client List – Chemical Manufactures

• DuPont
• Dow Chemical
• Monsanto
• BF Goodrich
• BASF
• Ciba Geigy
• Morton Thickol
• Teledyne Wah Chang
• ChevronPhillips
• Ashland Chemical
• TOTAL Pertochemical
• Chevron