RE: Water reduction for bronze art foundries

[tgreiner@tiac.net (tgreiner)]

>David,
>
>Fifty gallons of water per day could be handled in a drum evaporator
>provided there are no volatile organics in the water.  EMTEC in Lake
>Forest CA markets a unit that can evaporate up to 2.5 gallons per hour
>from a 55 gallon drum.  Power consumption is 9000 watts, and assuming a
>24 hour day for processing, the daily cost would be $19 (assuming
>$0.09/kW-Hr).

Another cheaper way to evaporate the water here is to use excess heat from
the foundry to evaporate the sludge.  Do the foundries have on-site steam?
Is there a way to use the excess heat to dryout the sludge?  I've seen firms
place a steam pipe into a sludge barrel to evaporate off the water and then
sell the sludge to a recylcer/smelter.  There should be NO VOCs or toxics
that could be made air-bourne in the waste.  

The foundry might also want to get a "zero-discharge" permit from thier POTW
since once they go to zero discharge they loose thier CWA RCRA Part B
exemption to treating thier waste.  (i.e. if a RCRA inspector was really
picky, they could be forced into getting a TSDF Part B permit for "waste
treatment".  A "zero discharge permit" (used here in Massachusetts) means
the company still has a water permit but agrees not to dischage any waste.
It's merely a way to get around the RCRA regulatory barrier against
closed-loop systems.

Tim



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Timothy J. Greiner MBA, MCP
Greiner Environmental
2 Emily Lane
Gloucester, MA  01930
tel:  508-525-2214
fax:  508-525-2247
e-mail:  tgreiner@tiac.net

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