E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc.

Year Submitted: 2003

Process: Wastewater Treatment

Industry: Agricultural Chemical Manufacturing

Wastes Reduced: VOC Emissions

Substance: Methylene Chloride

Equipment: Air Stripping

Location: La Porte, Harris County TX

No. of employees: 1070

Contact: R. K. Barger

Phone: (713) 470-3027

Description:

A new wastewater stripping facility was started up in September 1991 at the du Pont La Porte site. This stripper system collects process wastewater from an insecticide manufacturing process in tanks rather than in a pond and removes the volatile organic compounds to ppm levels.
In this facility, all the wastewater streams containing volatile organics are collected in two large feed tanks and steam stripped to remove the volatile organics. The stripped organics are burned in an existing scrubbed incinerator and the volatile-free wastewater is treated in the plant's biotreatment facilities.
With this system, the amount of volatile organics being discharged to the air from the wastewater handling facilities is greatly reduced. The compound of special importance is methylene chloride, a potential carcinogen.

Environmental Benefits:

Since starting up this unit our TRI reported air emissions of methylene chloride from the site has been reduced from over 475,000 pound to less than 47,000 pounds.

Details of Reductions

Source: TCEQ