Pilot-scale treatment and cooling tower reuse of gasification wastewater
The principal goal of the gasification research program at the University of North Dakota Energy Research Center (UNDERC) is to develop environmental data for effluent streams for fixed-bed gasification processes using low rank coals (LRC). Current efforts involve the treatment of gas liquor wastewater streams, and subsequent reuse in process cooling towers. The relatively large volume of wastewater produced in the fixed-bed gasification of LRC's makes the reuse of this stream in an evaporative cooling tower a desirable approach. However, the use of gas liquor as cooling tower makeup presents both operating and environmental concerns. At UNDERC a series of cooling tower wastewater reuse tests have been performed using water pretreated to various degrees. Wastewater for each test was produced in a pilot slagging fixed-bed gasifier (SFBG) at UNDERC using North Dakota lignite from the Indian Head mine. During the first phase of testing SFBG wastewater was treated by solvent extraction and steam stripping, to reduce levels of phenolic compounds and ammonia, prior to use as makeup to a pilot mechanical draft cooling tower. In later tests, this extracted and stripped wastewater (SGL) was further treated by biological oxidation and by granular activated carbon adsorption in pilot equipment at UNDERC before being fed to the cooling tower. The final test in this series involved the use of this extensively treated wastewater with the addition of chemical corrosion and scale inhibitors as cooling tower makeup. High carbon steel corrosion rates, biological and organic fouling rates, foaming, and volatile organic stripping rates were observed in the test using stripped gas liquor from slagging fixed-bed gasification.
- Research Organization:
- North Dakota Univ., Grand Forks (USA). Energy Research Center
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC21-83FE60181
- OSTI ID:
- 5834113
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/FE/60181-132; CONF-850427-1; ON: DE85009784
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
010404* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Gasification
ACTIVATED CARBON
ADSORBENTS
AMMONIA
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
AROMATICS
BIOCONVERSION
CARBON
COAL GASIFICATION
COAL GASIFICATION PLANTS
COOLING TOWERS
DIGESTION
ELEMENTS
EXTRACTION
GASIFICATION
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN HYDRIDES
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHENOLS
PROCESSING
RECYCLING
REMOVAL
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TOWERS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTE WATER
WASTES
WATER
WATER REQUIREMENTS
WATER TREATMENT