I am a Chemical Engineer and have just changed jobs.  I am working at a vegetable oil refinery as a process engineer.  My boss just told me today that they regard the wastewater treament facilities here to be part of the process and I am now responsible for it.  I need some assistanance as I have basically no wastewater treament experience.  I have seen an acidulation system, DAF, skimmers and a lagoon system with sand filtration. Could anyone suggest some books that would help me out?  What about a course or two which I could pursue on-line or in a day or two seminar type setting?  Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
JTV01  

JTV01:

You should pick up a copy of "Wastewater Engineering, Treatment and Reuse", Metcalf & Eddy, Mcgraw Hill, which is considered the bible of wastewater treatment.

Other guys on this forum can guide you to various courses and other educational media.
 

Orenda

INDUSTRIAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL, 3rd edition, W. Wesley Eckenfelder, Jr., McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2000.

http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~piwc/

http://www.wef.org/seminars/?ekmensel=c57dfa7b_20_0_114_3

http://www.wef.org/OnlineEducation/page.aspx?id=1017

Yeah, Eckenfelder will give you what you need for such a simple plant.  But by no means will these textbooks get you anywhere near the actual state of the art.

All the above recommendations are good for a starter.  But another avenue that needs to be reviewed is the local , state and federal rules that your plant now needs to meet- those regulations are changing faster than the metcalf + eddy books are being revised.

 Basically, the technology for sensing pollutants has advanced very quickly, leading to increasingly stringent discharge limits which could not be measured 10 yrs ago. In response, there are newer WW technologies now available that one may need to implement or at least consider. Membrane technologies, bioreactors, etc might not be covered in the old texts.

I would have to disagree as it is a bit of an exaggeration

I have not seen any major change in discharge limitations over the last 10 years.

The gulf oil spill is a excellent demonstration that there have been no significant advancements in oil cleanup technology in the last 30 years.

As a "for dummies" reference for a simple plant such as what the OP will be working with, the texts will do just fine.

Oil spill clean-up and wastewater treatment are related but VERY different technologies, so I don't get your point.

The last time I looked, Eckenfelder's textbook had no reference at all to technologies such as advanced oxidation just as an example.  AOPs have been in use since the 1970s with thousands of water treatment installations worldwide now in operation.  So yes, I think my warning that the texts will get you nowhere near the existing state of the art in water treatment technology is still valid.

 

The point was that it is an exaggeration to say that the discharge regulations have become increasingly stringent in the last 10 years and that there are newer technologies. Maybe a refinement of technology. After all, membranes were first commercialized in the 1970's.  

The oil removal methods are an example of where there has been little advancement in technology.

FOG removal is another example of little advancement and FOG removal methods generally incoporate similiar technologies to that used for oil removal.

Eckenfelder's text probably lacks a section on membrane technology for FOG removal. But membrane technology for FOG removal is most likely not very cost effective. Eckenfelder's text probably should suffice for the application.

I don't disagree with any of your points.

By the way, were you involved with that molten metal process back in the early 1990's?