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Destruction of organic contaminants in industrial wastewater using oil coalescence and photochemical oxidation (UV/ozone) technologies

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:133036

Dissolved organic contaminants are present in trace concentrations in most industrial wastewater processing applications. Boilers can remove organic contaminants if they are nonvolatile, but a secondary (concentrate stream) is produced. In comparison to evaporation, which is capital-intensive, photochemical oxidation methods produce no secondary waste, and can be used for the destruction of dissolved organic contaminants for most process effluent streams, including those originating from the nuclear power sector. The present work has demonstrated the utility of two different types of photochemical oxidation technologies for destruction of trace organics in wastewater (pretreated by an oil coalescer for oil and grease removal). Use of an oil coalescer as pretreatment to photochemical oxidation was necessitated due to the relatively high concentration of oil and grease (up to 8000 mg/kg) in the feed stream. The oil coalescer removed greater than 95% of the oil and grease and saturated aliphatic compounds. Organics were easily extracted into the oil-rich lighter phase which was periodically ejected from the coalescer.

Research Organization:
Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Williams (Paul) and Associates, Medina, OH (United States)
OSTI ID:
133036
Report Number(s):
EPRI-TR--105134; CONF-940746--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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