Processing Liquid Organic Wastes at the NNL Preston Laboratory

Author(s):  
Duncan Coppersthwaite ◽  
Howard Greenwood ◽  
Tahera Docrat ◽  
Sarah Allinson ◽  
Ruqayyah Sultan ◽  
...  

Organic compounds of various kinds have been used in the nuclear industry for numerous duties in uranium chemical, metal and ceramic processing plants. In the course of the various operations undertaken, these organic compounds have become contaminated with uranic material, either accidentally or as an inevitable part of the process. Typically, the chemical/physical form and/or concentration of the uranic content of the organics has prevented disposal. In order to address the issue of contaminated liquid organic wastes, the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) has developed a suite of treatments designed to recover uranium and to render the waste suitable for disposal. The developed processes are operated at industrial scale via the NNL Preston Laboratory Residue Processing Plant. The Oil Waste Leaching (OWL) Process is a fully industrialised process used for the treatment of contaminated oils with approximately 200 tonnes of uranium contaminated oil being treated to date. The process was originally developed for the treatment of contaminated tributyl phosphate and odourless kerosene which had been adsorbed onto sawdust. However, over the years, the OWL process has been refined for a range of oils including “water emulsifiable” cutting oils, lubricating oils, hydraulic oils/fluids and “Fomblin” (fully fluorinated) oils. Chemically, the OWL process has proved capable of treating solvents as well as oils but the highly volatile/flammable nature of many solvents has required additional precautions compared with those required for oil treatment. These additional precautions led to the development of the Solvent Treatment Advanced Rig (STAR), an installation operated under an inert atmosphere. STAR is a small “module” (100 dm3 volume) which allows the treatment of both water miscible and immiscible solvents. This paper discusses the challenges associated with the treatment of liquid organic wastes and the process developments which have allowed a wide range of materials to be successfully treated.

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 00169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Struk-Sokolowska

The problem of industrial wastewater treatment from food processing, including dairy, is not completely solved. The aim of this study was to determine the variability of dairy sewage characteristics in one of the largest and most advanced milk processing plants in Piatnica, East-North Poland and review the opportunities for biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. The study was conducted in the milk processing plant and WWTP in 2016 and 2017. The ratio of organic compounds for biogenic compounds in dairy wastewater were determined. During the two year study period there were no instances when the ratio of organic compounds for total phosphorus in Piatnica raw wastewater was lower than 25 gBOD5·gP-1. This indicates that in modern and innovative milk processing plants there are no instances when the amount of organic matter in dairy sewage is insufficient to remove phosphorus below 1.0 mgP·dm-3.


2006 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. VanWORTH ◽  
B. A. McCREA ◽  
K. H. TONOOKA ◽  
C. L. BOGGS ◽  
J. S. SCHRADER

PCR–restriction fragment length polymorphism of the flagellin (flaA) gene in Campylobacter jejuni was used to determine the relationships of isolates collected at the farm and throughout processing for six niche-market poultry species. This study focused on two specialty chicken products, poussin and free range, and four other specialty products, squab, duck, guinea fowl, and quail. Cloacal and carcass samples were collected from three flocks from each of the six niche species. Three processing plants in California participated in a 2-year investigation. A total of 773 isolates from farm, posttransport, and the processing plants were genotyped, yielding a total of 72 distinct flaA profiles for the six commodities. Genetic diversity of C. jejuni at the farm was greatest for ducks with up to 12 distinct flaA types in two flocks and least for squab 1 flaA type between two farms. For two of the guinea fowl flocks, one free-range flock, two squab flocks, and all three poussin flocks, the flaA types recovered at the prepackage station matched those from the farm. Cross-contamination of poultry carcasses was supported by the observation of flaA types during processing that were not present at the farm level. New C. jejuni strains were detected after transport in ducks, guinea fowl, and free-range chickens. Postpicker, postevisceration, and prewash sampling points in the processing plant yield novel isolates. Duck and free-range chickens were the only species for which strains recovered within the processing plant were also found on the final product. Isolates recovered from squab had 56 to 93% similarity based on the flaA types defined by PCR–restriction fragment length polymorphism profiles. The 26 duck isolates had genetic similarities that ranged from 20 to 90%. Guinea fowl and free-range chickens each had 40 to 65% similarity between isolates. Poussin isolates were 33 to 55% similar to each other, and quail isolates were 46 to 100% similar. Our results continue to emphasize the need to clean processing equipment and posttransport crates in order to decrease cross contamination between flocks. This study also determined that several strains of C. jejuni had unique flaA types that could only be recovered in their host species.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 58-65
Author(s):  
A. Yu. Shebeko ◽  
Yu. N. Shebeko ◽  
A. V. Zuban

Introduction. GOST R 12.3.047-2012 standard offers a methodology for determination of required fire resistance limits of engineering structures. This methodology is based on a comparison of values of the fire resistance limit and the equivalent fire duration. However, in practice incidents occur when, in absence of regulatory fire resistance requirements, a facility owner, who has relaxed the fire resistance requirements prescribed by GOST R 12.3.047–2012, is ready to accept its potential loss in fire for economic reasons. In this case, one can apply the probability of safe evacuation and rescue to compare distributions of fire resistance limits, on the one hand, and evacuation and rescue time, on the other hand.A methodology for the identification of required fire resistance limits. The probabilistic method for the identification of required fire resistance limits, published in work [1], was tested in this study. This method differs from the one specified in GOST R 12.3.047-2012. The method is based on a comparison of distributions of such random values, as the estimated time of evacuation or rescue in case of fire at a production facility and fire resistance limits for engineering structures.Calculations of required fire resistance limits. This article presents a case of application of the proposed method to the rescue of people using the results of full-scale experiments, involving a real pipe rack at a gas processing plant [2].Conclusions. The required fire resistance limits for pipe rack structures of a gas processing plant were identified. The calculations took account of the time needed to evacuate and rescue the personnel, as well as the pre-set reliability of structures, given that the personnel evacuation and rescue time in case of fire is identified in an experiment.


2007 ◽  
Vol 70 (10) ◽  
pp. 2354-2364 ◽  
Author(s):  
JASON R. HUCK ◽  
NICOLE H. WOODCOCK ◽  
ROBERT D. RALYEA ◽  
KATHRYN J. BOOR

Psychrotolerant endospore-forming bacteria Bacillus and Paenibacillus spp. are important spoilage organisms in fluid milk. A recently developed rpoB subtyping method was applied to characterize the diversity and phylogenetic relationships among Bacillus and related sporeformers associated with milk processing systems. Milk samples representing the processing continuum from raw milk to pasteurized products were collected from two fluid milk processing plants, held at 6°C uptothe code date that had been established by each processing plant (i.e., either 18 or 21 days), and plated for bacterial enumeration throughout storage. Bacterial colonies selected to represent the visible diversity in colony morphology on enumeration plates were examined further. Among 385 bacterial isolates characterized, 35% were Bacillus spp., and 65% were Paenibacillus spp. A total of 92 rpoB allelic types were identified among these isolates, indicating considerable diversity among endospore-forming spoilage organisms present in fluid milk systems. Of the 92 allelic types identified, 19 were isolated from samples collected from both processing plants. The same rpoB allelic types were frequently identified in paired raw milk and packaged product samples, indicating that Bacillus and Paenibacillus spp. can enter dairy processing systems through raw milk. Certain subtypes were found exclusively in pasteurized samples, including those that were temporally independent, suggesting the possibility of in-plant sources for these spoilage organisms, including through the persistence of selected subtypes in processing plants. Development of effective control strategies for the diverse array of psychrotolerant endospore-forming organisms that currently limit the shelf lives of high-temperature short-time fluid milk products will require comprehensive, integrated efforts along the entire milk processing continuum.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 28225-28278 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Gentner ◽  
T. B. Ford ◽  
A. Guha ◽  
K. Boulanger ◽  
J. Brioude ◽  
...  

Abstract. Petroleum and dairy operations are prominent sources of gas-phase organic compounds in California's San Joaquin Valley. Ground site measurements in Bakersfield and aircraft measurements of reactive gas-phase organic compounds were made in this region as part of the CalNex (California Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change) project to determine the sources contributing to regional gas-phase organic carbon emissions. Using a combination of near-source and downwind data, we assess the composition and magnitude of emissions from these prominent sources that are relatively understudied compared to motor vehicles We also developed a statistical modeling method with the FLEXPART-WRF transport and meteorological model using ground-based data to assess the spatial distribution of emissions in the San Joaquin Valley. We present evidence for large sources of paraffinic hydrocarbons from petroleum extraction/processing operations and oxygenated compounds from dairy (and other cattle) operations. In addition to the small straight-chain alkanes typically associated with petroleum operations, we observed a wide range of branched and cyclic alkanes that have limited previous in situ measurements or characterization in emissions from petroleum operations. Observed dairy emissions were dominated by ethanol, methanol, and acetic acid, and methane. Dairy operations were responsible for the vast majority of methane emissions in the San Joaquin Valley; observations of methane were well-correlated with non-vehicular ethanol, and multiple assessments of the spatial distribution of emissions in the San Joaquin Valley highlight the dominance of dairy operations for methane emissions. The good agreement of the observed petroleum operations source profile with the measured composition of non-methane hydrocarbons in unrefined natural gas associated with crude oil suggests a fugitive emissions pathway during petroleum extraction, storage, or processing with negligible coincident methane emissions Aircraft observations of emission hotspots from operations at oil wells and dairies are consistent with the statistical source footprint determined via transport modeling and ground-based data. At Bakersfield, petroleum and dairy operations each comprised 22–23% of anthropogenic non-methane organic carbon and were each responsible for ~12% of potential precursors to ozone, but their direct impacts as potential SOA precursors were estimated to be minor. A comparison with the California Air Resources Board emission inventory supports the current relative emission rates of reactive organic gases from these sources in the region.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 32649-32701 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Li ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
D. G. Streets ◽  
K. B. He ◽  
Y. F. Cheng ◽  
...  

Abstract. An accurate speciation mapping of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) emissions has an important impact on the performance of chemical transport models (CTMs) in simulating ozone mixing ratios and secondary organic aerosols. In this work, we developed an improved speciation framework to generate model-ready anthropogenic Asian NMVOC emissions for various gas-phase chemical mechanisms commonly used in CTMs by using an explicit assignment approach and updated NMVOC profiles, based on the total NMVOC emissions in the INTEX-B Asian inventory for the year 2006. NMVOC profiles were selected and aggregated from a wide range of new measurements and the SPECIATE database. To reduce potential uncertainty from individual measurements, composite profiles were developed by grouping and averaging source profiles from the same category. The fractions of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOC) were corrected during the compositing process for those profiles which used improper sampling and analyzing methods. Emissions of individual species were then lumped into species in different chemical mechanisms used in CTMs by applying mechanism-dependent species mapping tables, which overcomes the weakness of inaccurate mapping in previous studies. Gridded emissions for eight chemical mechanisms are developed at 30 min × 30 min resolution using various spatial proxies and are provided through the website: http://mic.greenresource.cn/intex-b2006. Emission estimates for individual NMVOC species differ between one and three orders of magnitude for some species when different sets of profiles are used, indicating that source profile is the most important source of uncertainties of individual species emissions. However, those differences are diminished in lumped species as a result of the lumping in the chemical mechanisms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 117863022110610
Author(s):  
Wubalem Genanaw ◽  
Girum Gebremeskel Kanno ◽  
Dawit Derese ◽  
Mekonnen Birhanie Aregu

In Ethiopia, most of the coffee processing plants are generating large amounts of wastewater with high pollutant concentrations and discharge directly into the water bodies untreated or partially treated. The main objective of this study was to assess the effects of coffee wastewater discharged to river water quality using physicochemical parameters and macro-invertebrate indices. This study was conducted from November to the end of December 2019. Ten wastewater and river water samples were taken from coffee the processing plant and river. The macro-invertebrate samples were collected by kick sampling technique using a standard hand net. Shannon and Simpson diversity indices were examined at 3 sampling stations. The Pielou evenness index was also determined. It was found that except for TDS all the parameters of the raw wastewater and river water did not comply with the international discharge limit. The mean concentration of Faro coffee processing plant wastewater were BOD5 (2409.6 ± 173.1 mg/L), COD (4302 ± 437 mg/L), TSS (2824.6 ± 428.4 mg/L), TDS (3226 ± 623.6 mg/L), and TS (4183.3 ± 432.9 mg/L). Whereas from Bokaso coffee processing plant were BOD5 (3770 ± 604.4 mg/L), COD (4082.6 ± 921.9 mg/L), TSS (2766 ± 501.7 mg/L), TDS (3017 ± 747.6 mg/L), and TS (3874 ± 471.1 mg/L). A total of 392 macroinvertebrates belonging to 24 families and 7 orders were collected. The benthos assemblage communities in this river were 40, 56, and 296 at downstream 1, downstream 2, and upstream respectively. The value of the Simpson diversity index varies from 0.4 to 0.75. In the same manner, the value of the Shannon diversity index also varied from 0.5 to 1.36. Most of the physicochemical parameters of the raw wastewater were beyond the national and international discharge limits. The quality of Orsha river water downstream was more adversely affected compared to upstream.


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