Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2005
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Separator prevents oil contaminating a power plant stormwater system
Removal of oil from water
before the water is discharged
into a river or other body of
water is an important environmental
goal. In order to accomplish
this, a major hydropower producer in
the southern United States contracted
with HydroQuip, Inc. for the supply of
a state of the art oil/water separator
(OWS).
The power plant had several goals,
but the most important was that, in
addition to removal of oil
from normal stormwater and
plant wash runoff, the OWS
unit also had to be designed
to allow oil separation during
any possible worst case
scenario, a 10 year storm.
This worst case is defined as
possible equipment failure,
with sub- sequent loss of oil
in addition to the oil carried
by the stormwater runoff,
during the storm.
Therefore, the separator had to be
designed to handle its maximum rated
flow of 1900 US gpm (432 m3/hr) with
an oil concentration of 4250 mg/L.
HydroQuip consulted with Lantec
Products and, as a result, the oil/water
separator was designed using HD QPAC
® as the coalescing media. This
allowed for design of the separator to
exceed the European Union’s specification
for OWS units, EN 858-1, that calls for 99.88% removal of all free oil.
After startup, the separator was tested
several times and the concentration of
oil in the water being discharged was
routinely below detectable level.
Compliance with EN 858-1 performance
requirement was confirmed.
Approximately six months after the
separator was installed, a near worst
case scenario took place. An oil spill
occurred during a severe thunderstorm.
As a result, the oil/water separator did
indeed experience the full design load
of 1900 US gpm water with 4250 mg/L
of oil. Discharge into the dam sluice
remained at nondetectable levels for the
duration of the event.
The power company is planning to
retrofit several OWS units to HD QPAC
in the near future.
Contact: HydroQuip Inc.
E-mail: info@hydroquipinc.com
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