Looking for recycler of waste nitric/sulfuric acid stream 4

[waynef43]

I'm looking for a company that may be interested in obtaining a constant supply, in the tens of thousands of gallons, of a 2% nitric/6% sulfuric acid wasterwater stream.

Any leads would be appreciated.

 

[spp62f]

You may be interested in regenerating the sulfuric portion into high strength sulfuric acid product. There is an entire production industry built on this type of application. A company called MECS specializes in this industry, specifically for phosphate/oil/methyl methacrylate (MMA)/ Acetonitrile industries/plants. Almost anything containing sulfur may be turned into Sulfuric Acid.

 

[moltenmetal]

Is this nitrating acid, or some kind of pickling waste? Both are high use, but the water makes them unattractive to transport.

 

[waynef43]

No. Is is a waste product generated from a wet flue gas treatment process where NOx and SOx are converted to acid.

 

[StoneCold]

You might have to neutralize it and then distill or RO the water to recycle it. Maybe a combination of both.
Maybe you could concentrate the acid and find a person who was interested.
Regards
StoneCold

 

[waynef43]

Concentrating looks like a good idea. Why go to the expense of neutralization when it may be just as cost effective to concentrate and sell it?

 

[Compositepro]

If you neutralize it, it might be useful as fertilizer.

 

[GHartmann]

Here is a link to a company supplying acid recovery systems:

http://www.acidrecovery.com/

Concentration of nitric / sulfuric acid mixtures requires exotic metallurgy or glass equipment and specialized know-how.

Did the designer of your flue-gas system have any suggestions for disposal of the wastes?

A few years back the market for recovered sulfuric acid was very poor due the large unumber of desulfurizing projects in the petroleum industry.

Even neutralization will leave you with a very weak solution that is not very usefull as a fertilizer. (Ca(NO3)2 / CaSO4).

Good luck

 

[moltenmetal]

Good luck getting rid of this as anything but a waste. It's too dilute to be worth anything. Can you remove enough water to make it worth anything? I'd be surprised if you could for mixed acid. Metallurgy is only one of many problems.

 

[moltenmetal]

Perhaps you could neutralize with ammonia, then evaporate? The resulting ammonium nitrate/ammonium sulphate might pay for the ammonia and offset the cost of disposal.

 

[GHartmann]

A few years back I did some investigations as to if there was any interest in relocation of a spent sulfuric acid plant. I talked to a number of people in the industry and they were quite helpful. Ultimately there was no interest in relocating the plant.

Anyway, the point is to start calling around and trying to network your way into some help.

Your success for recycling or neutralization probably depends on your location and if you have any neighboring facilities that would be interested.

There are some people like Rhodia in Baton Rouge who will take in "hazardous wastes" to their spent sulfuric acid recovery plant.

Their spent acid comes from alklyzation processes in the refinery industry.

Let us know how you make out.