Evaluation of treatment technologies for water reuse in coal gasification

Technical Report · Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1980

OSTI ID:5867137

Luthy, R G; Campbell, J R; McLaughlin, L; Walters, R W

This investigation assessed significant issues and conducted bench scale experiments pertinent to management and reuse of coal coking and coal gasification process wastewaters. For the case of high-BTU coal gasification processes, the cooling tower is the most likely target for reuse of process wastewater. Treatment studies were performed with high BTU pilot coal gasification process quench waters to evaluate enhanced organic removal via powdered activated carbon-activated sludge treatment, and to evaluate a coal gasification wastewater treatment train comprised of sequential processing via ammonia removal, biological oxidation, lime-soda softening, granular activated carbon adsorption and reverse osmosis. Biological oxidation of coal gasification wastewater showed excellent removal efficiencies at moderate loadings; addition of powdered activated carbon provided lower effluent COD and color. Gasification process wastewater treated through activated carbon adsorption appears suitable for reuse as cooling tower make-up water. Screening studies indicate that reverse osmosis is an attractive technique for reducing wastewater dissolved solids. Additional study is needed to determine quality constraints regarding acceptable wastewater organic loading in cooling tower make-up water, and to evaluate possible release of toxic/hazardous organics to the environment via cooling tower drift. Additional follow-up work to this study is in progress to evaluate solvent extraction of gasification process wastewaters to recover phenolics and to reduce priority organic pollutants.

• Research Organization: Carnegie-Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (USA). Dept. of Civil Engineering; Office of Water Research and Technology, Washington, DC (USA). Water Resources Scientific Information Center
• OSTI ID: 5867137
• Report Number(s): PB-81-182164
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
COAL GASIFICATION
WATER TREATMENT
ACTIVATED CARBON
ADSORPTION
COKING
COOLING TOWERS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
ADSORBENTS
CARBON
CARBONIZATION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CONTROL
DECOMPOSITION
ELEMENTS
GASIFICATION
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES
NONMETALS
POLLUTION CONTROL
SORPTION
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TOWERS
010800* - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Waste Management
010400 - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Processing