P2 & E2 Internship Program - Projects

Pollution Prevention Internship Program
1996 Intern Projects

Compiled by Richard J. Reese, Program Coordinator
with program coordination and assistance by Jim Janssen and Brian Rodely

ComEd

Chicago

ComEd (formerly Commonwealth Edison) is among the largest electric utility companies in the United States, serving more than 3.3 million customers in northern Illinois. ComEd's service territory covers about one-fifth of Illinois (11,540 square miles) and includes about 70 percent of the state's population. ComEd's electric generation capabilities come from nuclear, coal, oil, and natural gas sources.

For this project, a waste audit was conducted at one of ComEd's commercial facilities that maintains the equipment for transmitting generated power. A life-cycle approach was utilized in measuring the relative environmental impacts of each refuse waste stream. The data included the costs, quantities, and compositions of each waste and led to reduction options for wood pallets, wood cross arms, wood poles, and cardboard. Further analysis showed that purchasing a trash compactor at this location would be more cost effective than the current leasing arrangement. In addition, a procedure to segregate scrap metal more efficiently was implemented by locating a roll-off container in a more accessible location. The total annual savings would amount to $95,000 per year if all the recommendations were adopted and would reduce landfilled quantities by 23 %.

The fossil fuel stations monitor stack emissions with a Continuous Emissions Monitor. Readings for NOx and SO₂ concentrations are in parts per million (ppm). The permit standards, however, are in pounds per million Btu (lb/MMBtu). The ppm term is meaningless to the operator who may wish to make adjustments relative to permit standards. To correct this, the various formulas needed for unit conversion were compiled and entered into the operator's workstation. The operators now have a baseline to make adjustments and optimize the lowest emission concentrations. This can help forecast and determine the station's need for allowances and will allow a better comparison among units and possibly provide incentives for operators to reduce emissions.

Continental General Tire Company

Mt. Vernon

Continental General Tire Company located in Mt. Vernon, IL, manufactures radial passenger and truck tires. Part of the truck tire manufacturing facility is a joint venture between General Tire (purchased by Continental of Germany in 1987), Toyo Tire International, Inc. and Yokohama Corporation of America. Employing over 2,000 people and working around the clock, the facility can produce 1.6 million radial truck tires and 7 million radial passenger tires annually.

In the extruding departments, solvent based marking inks are used to identify tire treads. By converting to water based marking inks, which do not contain solvents, volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions would be reduced by 6,900 pounds annually. Lab results have concluded that this conversion would not result in a loss in production, nor would it require capital expenditures. In addition, water based marking inks are less expensive and would result in saving the facility in excess of $10,000 annually.

Henkel Corporation

Kankakee

Henkel Corporation owns and operates a facility in the Kankakee area that produces a variety of chemical products including natural Vitamin E, sterols, resins, polymers and surfactants.

An increase in organic loadings from the production areas has overloaded the wastewater treatment facility (WWTF). This has resulted in increased sludge being sent to the local landfill and excess suspended solid surcharges from the local publicly owned treatment works (POTW). A program to quantify and identify the wastewater flows from all production areas was implemented. Composite wastewater samplers were used at various strategic sewer locations for sampling without interfering with the production and distribution operations.

The WWTF averaged 625,000 gallons per day throughput and it was found that the vitamin E production area was the largest contributor of COD and BOD. Production areas in the future will be assessed a percentage of the WWTF operating costs based upon their organic contribution. Pollution prevention efforts were initiated in the production areas and are anticipated to result in savings to the company.

Keller Farms, Inc.

Collinsville

Keller Farms is a large family-owned farming operation near Collinsville with approximately 2,000 acres planted in corn, soybeans, sweetcorn, and horseradish. The majority of the farm is located in the American Bottoms flood plain of the Mississippi River. This area consists mainly of clay and silt soil. In an effort to increase soil fertility, improve soil properties and increase yields, Keller Farms began to locate industrial by-products to use as soil amendments. This would provide generators of non-hazardous wastes a valuable alternative to landfilling. The farming operations would be enhanced by enabling it to grow more horseradish, a root crop requiring fertile loamy soil.

Current waste streams applied to the farmland include lime treatment sludge, and diatomaceous earth. Through the use of the Industrial Material Exchange Service and the St. Louis Solid Waste Coordinators Office, industrial cooling water lime sludge, used foundry sand, and discarded gypsum by-products were located and evaluated for use as soil amendments. Other potential land application of non-hazardous industrial by-products is being investigated.

Honeywell
MICRO SWITCH Division

Galena

Honeywell's plant in Galena has an electrostatic powder coating operation that is used to produce cases for their heavy duty limit switches. The powder coating, a non-solvent based paint alternative, provides protection to the casings for applications in harsh environments.

The powder coating operation is preceded by a zinc phosphating process to improve adhesion of the paint and to provide corrosion protection; this operation involves a five stage batch spray process. Spill guard doors and spill trays were installed to reduce the spillage and drag-out contamination of the phosphating chemicals. To decrease the amount of sludge buildup, the phosphate bath was recirculated and precipitated in a separate clarifier tank. These modifications resulted in a savings of $5,000 per year in chemical usage.

Other wastewater reduction alternatives investigated included ion exchange recirculation, iron phosphating (instead of zinc), and evaporation, which could reduce wastewater by more than 90%. These alternatives can have a potential savings of $46,000 in wastewater treatment, heating, and process chemical costs.

In a related exercise, vendors were contacted to research alternative technologies for cleaning the part racks. After the powder coating, the racks are burned at 800^o F to remove the insulating coating layer and the ash is cleaned from the racks with a power washer.

Maytag Herrin Laundry Products

Herrin

Maytag Herrin Laundry Products manufactures washer and dryers. Their facility is just under one million square feet and employs over 800 people. Most incoming washer and dryer components are received by the Herrin plant in cardboard packaging. The plant currently recycles over 525,000 lbs. of cardboard per year and has developed reusable container schemes with some of its parts suppliers. This project focused on further reducing the amount of cardboard from incoming vendor packaging.

A plant-wide audit was conducted that identified and quantified all incoming components received in cardboard packaging. The current packaging specifications and costs were determined for each part and then analyzed against new packaging alternatives.

Considerations for the redesign of packaging materials included the following: materials handling must not be increased, the weight of each box should be maintained at 35 lbs. or less per OSHA regulations, the quality of the part must not be compromised, the number of different types or sizes of boxes must be kept to a minimum, storage space can not be increased, and the return on investment must be less than two years.

Reusable container options were identified for the top six contributors of incoming cardboard. This could result in a savings of $82,000 per year and eliminate 196,000 lbs. of incoming cardboard to the facility.

McWhorter Technologies

Chicago Heights

McWhorter Technologies is one of the leading manufacturers of resins in the United States. The company produces alkyd, polyester, acrylic and vinyl resins which are used in the paint and coating industry. The Chicago Heights plant uses over 3,000,000 pounds of cleaning solvents annually to ensure the quality of over 800 products.

In July of 1996, the company issued a policy change that standardized the amount of recycled solvent utilized for cleaning the reactors and associated piping between batches. This resulted in an annual savings of $15,700 in avoided disposal costs of 188,000 pounds of recycled solvent. In addition, thirteen products were identified by the intern where final rinsing could be eliminated without compromising product quality. The result saved the company $15,000 annually in avoided disposal costs of 28,000 pounds of recycled solvent.

The elimination of at least one half of all second cleanings or refluxings of each reactor is being considered. This has the potential to save McWhorter $89,000 annually due to increased throughput and avoidance of disposal costs for 63,000 pounds of recycled solvent. Also, an investment of $5,000 in piping to recover solvent from decanters by sending it to the solvent recovery still would save them $5,800 annually.

Motorola

Schaumburg

Motorola is one of the leading manufacturers of communication products and electronic components in the world. The 325 acre Motorola Center in Schaumburg includes the corporate offices and the Land Mobile Products Sector (LMPS). The LMPS facility includes offices, quartz crystal modification and refinement operations, printed circuit board assembly operations, as well as research and development laboratories. The intermediate product boards and crystals are utilized in the production of two-way radios and base station communications equipment.

In the LMPS facility, a wastewater survey was performed to determine opportunities for reduction and/or reuse. The reverse osmosis (RO) system at the facility is used to generate deionized water for the processes. Previously discarded from the RO system, both the pre and post-wash water along with other non-contact cooling water was collected and repiped for reuse into the RO units. This change saved LMPS approximately $20,000 per year by reducing the amount of city water utilized for make-up to the system. Data was collected for reusing RO reject water for make-up water to the cooling tower with minor modifications. By controlling scale buildup from the reject water, it is estimated that this could save them up to $20,000 a year if this project is implemented.

Opportunities for the recycling of grit slurry from the lapping and quartz cutting areas are being investigated. Samples have been sent to another Motorola facility that has developed a process for reclaim of this material. If the testing is successful, the technology could be transferred to this site.

MSC Laminates and Composites

Elk Grove Village

MSC Laminates and Composites, a subsidiary of Material Sciences Corporation, employs over 350 people in Elk Grove Village. The facility has three continuous coating lines with each line consisting of a primer coater and a finish coater for coating coiled steel or aluminum. They can apply more than twenty different types of thermoset coatings in primer, finish, adhesive, or ink configurations with an infinite variety of colors.

This project focused on finding a suitable substitute for the clean-up solvent, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). Lab tests and in-process trials were conducted that found an acetone-based solvent for substitution. Acetone, which has recently been exempted as a regulated air pollutant, will not require permitting and record keeping like MEK. The cost of the new solvent is the same as that of MEK, but up to $130,000 in future regulatory costs can be avoided. Substitution of the acetone-based solvent may be applicable at two other MSC facilities in other states.

Flowmeters have been ordered to better estimate emissions due to clean up activities. Once installed, this should reduce the documented solvent usage which varies for each production shift.

Northern Regional Groundwater Protection Planning Committee and Winnebago (NRGPPC)

Boone, McHenry, Counties

NRGPPC is charged with the task of assisting municipalities in the development of groundwater protection management plans through the transfer of technology and educational programs. A pollution prevention (P2) focus for groundwater protection was developed for the city of Marengo. Marengo's water supply is drawn from a shallow sandy aquifer, making it vulnerable to contamination from releases of hazardous materials and petroleum products.

NRGPPC sponsored an intern to work at Nissan Forklift Corporation and Arnold Engineering, both located in Marengo. Nissan is a manufacturer of electric and natural gas powered industrial forklifts. Recommendations were made to modify the existing machine coolant recycling system. The volume of coolant used will drop by 75 percent and save the company $37,000 per year once the project is implemented. Arnold Engineering manufactures magnetic components and rolled steel products. A project was identified to reuse foundry process waste sand as beneficial fill material, with savings estimated to be approximately $20,000 annually in disposal costs.

The progress and results of the internship were shared with members of the Marengo Groundwater Protection Team and the local business community was informed about both projects at in informal P2 workshop that was held in August 1996.

Sundstrand Aerospace

Rockford

Sundstrand is a major supplier of component parts for the aerospace and airline industry. In response to the phase out of chlorinated solvents, the facility has implemented a change to aqueous cleaning technologies. The ability to reuse or recycle these aqueous cleaners was evaluated because it could save the company money. Decreasing the volume of wastewater also would result in a sewer surcharge reduction.

Bench tests were performed with ultrafiltration (UF) recycling technology to determine the proper membrane type and size to achieve cost effective results. Once installed, the UF technology on two existing aqueous cleaning systems will save the company $17,000 per year at current use levels.

Trade Waste Incineration (TWI)

Sauget

TWI, a division of Chemical Waste Management, owns and operates a commercial hazardous waste incinerator in Sauget, Illinois, which employs about 200 people. TWI generates approximately 5,000 tons per year of dry scrubber solids (DSS) from the air pollution control equipment which contains 30-60 percent unreacted lime. Because DSS is derived from the treatment of listed hazardous waste, it is considered a hazardous waste and is disposed of in a hazardous waste landfill. The objective of this project was to reduce the amount of DSS generated or find a potential reuse for the material.

Lime is used in the spray dryer absorber (SDA) to reduce hydrochloric acid (HCl) emissions from their stack gas. Lime is less costly and more readily available than other absorbents. Excess lime is used in the SDA since the amount of HCl produced by the incineration of chlorinated materials varies and permitted emission rates must be maintained. As a result of the intern's efforts on this project, the installation of a continuous HCl monitor with closed loop control to optimize the feed rate of lime slurry is one option being considered by the company. Reuse of the DSS as a neutralization agent at a local wastewater treatment plant facility is currently being investigated. Delisting of DSS is also under consideration.

Van den Bergh Foods Company

Joliet/Channahon

Van den Bergh Foods is an edible oils modification facility located about ten miles southwest of Joliet. Operations at this site include multi-step refining and specialty processing of vegetable oils, packaging and filling of finished product, warehousing, and distribution. Oils processed at this facility include soybean, cottonseed, canola, and sunflower.

A waste audit was conducted at their wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to determine principal sources of effluent from the plant. The aerated lagoons under certain circumstances become septic and emit nuisance odors. The odors are more prevalent in the summer; as temperatures increase, the dissolved oxygen (DO) content of the water decreases resulting in increased levels of anaerobic activities.

The refinery process contributes the most to the overall loadings along with BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) and FOG (fats, oil, and greases) at the WWTP. During the refinery start up to produce another oil , the WWTP lagoons could be shocked by fluctuations in temperature, flows, and pH. Recommendations under consideration include purchasing three more aerator/mixers for the lagoons to alleviate the dead zones where no mixing occurs, installing dissolved oxygen monitors, and installing a density meter with an automatic shut-off valve to recycle effluent back to the refinery in the event that there is FOG carryover.

Zenith Electronics Corporation

Melrose Park

Zenith Electronics Corporation, located in Melrose Park, IL, employs over 3,000 people and manufactures cathode ray tubes (CRTs or color TV picture tubes). Any successful pollution prevention projects undertaken at this facility would be duplicated in their new CRT manufacturing plant currently under construction in Woodridge, IL. The focus of this project was to find an alternative solvent for cleaning the CRTs.

Significant amounts of solvents which contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are used in the cleaning operations of the CRT manufacturing process. The majority of the fugitive emissions from cleaning are generated in the buffing or rework area for surface defects and also in the final packing area prior to shipment. Cleaning operations are performed on a continuously moving assembly line and involve hand wiping of the picture tubes' glass surfaces. An appropriate cleaner has to be able to clean effectively, dry quickly, and not leave a streaked surface.

Laboratory and production line trials were conducted and a cleaning solution was formulated that contained only 3 percent VOCs. Use of this cleaning solution on the production lines, along with better cleaning solution management, will reduce VOC fugitive emissions from 23 tons per year to less than 2 tons per year and will also result in saving the company $11,000.

For more information on any of these 1996 intern projects,
contact Rick Reese.