TRICO Products

Year Submitted: 2003

Process: Wastewater Treatment

Industry: Automotive Parts Manufacturer

Wastes Reduced: Hazardous Waste

Equipment: Wastewater Chemical Treatment System

Location: Brownsville TX

No. of employees: 622

Contact: Vicente Guerrero III

Phone: 956.544.2722

Description:

The WWT sludge is generated from a plant wastewater treatment system that treats plating effluent. The system is necessary to meet water quality pretreatment standards. The WWT sludge is currently considered an F006 wastestream. The characteristics of this wastestream do not exhibit any of the hazardous characteristics. Our Environmental Management Program (ISO 14001) and our Source Reduction Goals were to reduce the amount of F006 wastesream by 25%. This target was exceeded by changing the treatment chemistries. Bruce Anderson, a vendor with A-Bright Company, assisted us in this particular project. The types of chemicals that were added prior to the project were an anionic polymer flake, Calcium Chloride, and Ferric Chloride. These anhydrous chemicals were excellent metal precipitating chemistries but generated excess sludge build-up. Several trial studies were conducted by using a liquid wastewater treatment compound (EnviroBrite WTC 816) in lieu of the ferric chloride. The results were very favorable during the studies. Our studies indicated low sludge volume generation but maintained categorical pretreatment standard compliance. Our waste reduction/waste minimization team agreed to switch the treatment chemistries in the beginning of October 2000. As a result of the switch over, our hazardous plating sludge (F006) has been reduced significantly. During calendar year 2000, the facility generated 131,659 Lbs of the F006 wastestream. In calendar year 2001, the facility generated 76,036 Lbs of the F006 wastestream. This was a 27.8 Tons (42%) reduction of hazardous waste due to the chemistry change. Our target amount was 25 %.

Environmental Benefits:

Our environmental management program allowed us to reduce the amount of hazardous waste F006 being generated at the source by 27.8 Tons of waste.

Details of Reductions

Additional Information :

The saving due to the reduction was $11,120 for disposal cost ($400/Ton) and $1,200 for transportation fee.

Source: TCEQ