Chemicals provide the building blocks for everything in our physical world. Uncontrolled, their misuse can result in tragedy. As a safeguard against potential dangers, treatment processes are being implemented to mitigate or eliminate the harmful ...
While some metals can be readily precipitated, others cannot be until they are reduced. The clarified water resulting from these processes can then be discharged into a municipal wastewater treatment system.
The electroplating industry uses many chemicals in the process of plating objects like golf clubs and water faucets with metals such as chromium and copper. Before the chemically-laden water used in the electroplating process can be released into s...
The oxidation/reduction process is applied by industries in several unique and environmentally beneficial ways. The most frequently used technique is electrolysis. This is especially common in the photographic processing industry.
To reduce the reliance on harmful chlorinated oxidizing agents, the EPA has conducted numerous demonstrations of the effectiveness of safer oxygen-based compounds. The performance of these oxidizers can be enhanced by the addition of powerful ultra...
Traditionally, chlorine has been used as a disinfectant to kill viruses and bacteria in drinking water. However, chlorine has the disadvantage of reacting with organics in the water, producing potentially carcinogenic by-products. Ozonation, an ox...
Gaseous wastestreams present a unique set of challenges. Air pollutants can travel far from their point of origin, causing a variety of health and environmental problems. A range of treatments, including physical, chemical, thermal and biological,...
Recycling industrial materials that would otherwise require treatment or landfilling is known as resource recovery and is part of an emerging area of pollution prevention. Some wastes are converted directly into useful energy in municipal waste-to-...
The future of chemical treatment technology is striving to attain the reduction of waste at its source, and seeking to improve the monitoring of that which is discharged.
In the past, some of the major sources of water pollution have been landfills, underground storage tanks, and untreated effluent. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA sets industry-specific discharge limitations for water pollutants. Treatment metho...