Letter 31032

Methanol removal from industrial wastewater  

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In our wastewater treatment plant after we treat our effluent out to a FAC pond we still have residual methanol. We already use various biological means , but they do not seem to be able to handle the methanol. any suggestions ?

Chris Nicastro
industrial wastewater treatment - Model City, New York

What if used some caustics and fatty acids to convert your ethanol into ester as it is done making the biodiesel.

Good luck

Cair Shishani
aircraft maintenance - Abu Dhabi, UAE

Funny, our municipal wastewater treatment plant would be pleased to get some free methanol. During the cold seasons in Finland, they have to dose methanol to keep the denitrification bacteria going strong. This is a wild guess, but is it possible that some of the microbes in your biological treatment system could produce more methanol...?

Arsi R Saukkola
- Espoo, Finland

The water content of the effluent makes a biodiesel conversion unworkable. Drying the oils would make it unfeasible.

Colin Caissie
machine design - Whitefield, Maine