>EPA
'Jrtited States
Environmental Protection
Agency
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EPA 420 09-89-007
August 1989
BALLAS, TEXAS
LIBRARY
Start-up And Operation*
Chemical Process
Technologies In The
Municipal Sector
The Carver-Greenfield
Process For
Sludge Drying
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STARTUP AND OPERATION OF
CHEMICAL PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE MUNICIPAL SECTOR:
THE CARVER-GREENFIELD PROCESS FOR SLUDGE DRYING
by
A Review Team of Engineers from the
Chemical Process and Petroleum Refinery
Industries
Manuel Gonzalez
Frank Y.W. Liao
Kathryn A. Pluenneke
Gilbert Rowe
Martin J. Siecke
for
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
EPA Contract No. 68-03-3470/0-14
John M. Walker, Project Manager
Office of Municipal Pollution Control
Washington, D.C. 20460
Harry E. Bostian, Work Assignment Manager
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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Section
INTRODUCTION • 1-1
1.1. Objectives and Scope of Project 1- 3
1.2. Approach to Task 1- 4
SUPPORTING A MUNICIPAL SEWAGE SLUDGE DRYING
CARVER-GREENFIELD FACILITY 2- 1
2.1. Initial Startup 2- 1
2.2. Data Collection and Retention 2- 4
2.3. Pre-Startup Activities - 2- 4
2.4. Plant Staffing for Normal
Operation and Maintenance 2- 6
2.5. Personnel Training 2- 7
2.6. Operations Documents 2- 8
2.7. Health and Safety Documentation and
Procedures 2-10
2.8. Technology Acquisition and Retention 2-13
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MERCER COUNTY
IMPROVEMENT AUTHORITY 3-1
3.1. Permanent Staff 3-3
3.2. Additional Startup Assistance 3- 7
3.3. Training Program 3- 9
3.4. Startup Planning Considerations 3-10
3.5. Assuring Continued Operations 3-11
3.6. Mode of Plant Operation 3-11
IMPLEMENTATION OF CHEMICAL PROCESS
TECHNOLOGIES FOR MANAGEMENT OF
MUNICIPAL WASTES 4- 1
4.1. Factors That Influence Facilities
in Municipal Applications 4- 1
4.2. Making the Transition 4- 4
4.3. Obtaining Necessary Skills/Training 4- 5
4.4. Cost and Operational Expectations 4- 7
REFERENCES 5-1
Appendix
A THE CARVER-GREENFIELD PROCESS
A- 1
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Appendix Page
A (con1t.)
A.I. Heavy and Light Oil Carver-
Greenfield Processes A- 1
A.2. Carver-Greenfield Multiple Effect
Evaporation A- 2
A.3. Carver-Greenfield Mechanical
Vapor Recompression A- 4
B QUALIFICATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL REVIEW TEAM
MEMBERS AND EPA PROJECT MANAGEMENT B- 1
C OTHER OBSERVATIONS BY INDUSTRIAL REVIEW
TEAM MEMBERS C- 1
D ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS D- 1
E STATUS OF THE CARVER-GREENFIELD MUNICIPAL
SEWAGE SLUDGE DRYING FACILITIES: A
BRIEF UPDATE E- 1
E.I. The City of Los Angeles Facility E- 1
E.2. Facilities Under Construction E- 4
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LIST OF FIGURES
Number Page
1 Mercer County Improvement Authority
Plant Staffing Schedule 3- 4
2 Mercer County Improvement Authority
Normal Operations Organization 3- 5
3 Mercer County Improvement Authority
Initial Startup Organization 3- 8
4 Four-Stage Carver-Greenfield Municipal
Sewage Sludge Drying System A- 3
5 Carver-Greenfield Mechanical Vapor
Recompression Sewage Sludge
Drying System A- 5
6 City of Los Angeles Carver-Greenfield
Facility Production Statistics E- 3
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
STARTUP AND OPERATION OF
CHEMICAL PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE MUNICIPAL SECTOR:
THE CARVER-GREENFIELD PROCESS FOR SLUDGE DRYING
Environmental considerations have led to the introduction of
more sophisticated methods of treatment and disposal of
municipal wastes than have been practiced in the past. In
many respects, these new techniques are similar to those
used in the chemical processing and petroleum refining
industries, which have over many years developed and
implemented complex processes for their own purposes. For
the purpose of simplifying the text, "chemical process
industries" will be used in this report to refer to those
industries involved in chemical manufacturing and petroleum
refining.
The Carver-Greenfield Process is an example of a more
complex technology that has been adapted to the drying of
municipal sewage sludge. There are currently four
Carver-Greenfield municipal projects in the United States,
three under construction and the fourth involved in a long
and difficult startup.
It has become increasingly apparent, especially after the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
sponsored a workshop in 1987 on the Carver-Greenfield
municipal projects, that a number of startup problems could
be due to difficulties with the approach and experience of
the startup personnel as well as with the design of the
system. To further explore this area, EPA decided to
organize an industrial review team of engineers with startup
and operations experience in the chemical process
industries. The designer of the Carver-Greenfield municipal
sewage sludge plants, Foster Wheeler USA Corporation, was
instrumental in making initial contact with a number of the
larger chemical processing and petroleum refining companies
in the United States, and in assisting EPA to screen
potential candidates for the review team.
A five-person industrial review team was assembled in June,
1988. After studying background information on the Carver-
Greenfield Process and the four municipal sewage sludge
drying projects in the United States, the Industrial Review
Team gathered further information on these projects through
a series of meetings with representatives of three of the
project owners: the Mercer County (New Jersey) Improvement
Authority, the City of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles
County Sanitation Districts.
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Based on their professional experience with chemical
processing installations and the information gathered in the
course of this project, the Industrial Review Team developed
certain conclusions and recommendations regarding the
startup, operation, and maintenance of Carver-Greenfield
municipal sewage sludge drying plants. Recommendations were
also developed for the general case of implementing chemical
process technologies in a municipal application.
The Mercer County Improvement Authority plant, which was in
construction at the time of the review, was chosen for
specific case study, and suggestions were developed for
starting up, operating, and maintaining that facility.
Because the City of Los Angeles Carver-Greenfield facility
was the only plant of its type that was completed and in
startup at the time of this review, it was of particular
value in developing the material presented in this report.
A brief update has been included regarding progress that has
occurred at that facility and the facilities under
construction since the first draft of this report was
presented in September, 1988.
The Carver-Greenfield technology is substantially different
from traditional municipal wastewater and sewage sludge
management systems, with process characteristics, equipment,
and unit operations found more frequently in chemical
processing systems. This process involves flammable liquid
and vapor, operation under reduced pressure, and
feedforward/feedback complexity. Because of its similarity
to chemical plant and petroleum refinery operations, it is
to be expected that those practices that have proven to be
essential in industrial facilities will prove to be of value
in municipal sewage sludge drying Carver-Greenfield plants.
For the startup of a facility similar to a Carver-Greenfield
municipal sewage sludge drying plant, chemical and petroleum
companies have found that a team of engineers with many
years of specialized experience starting up and operating
the type of equipment and unit operations present in the new
facility are needed on a twenty-four-hour-per-day basis,
seven days per week. After the plant achieves normal
operation, fewer engineers are required. Daily coverage
five days per week and on-call weekends is normally
adequate.
In addition to startup and/or operations engineers, there
are certain specialized technical skills and talents that
have proven to be essential to the successful startup,
operation, and maintenance of complex chemical processing
facilities. These include health and safety,
corrosion/materials, piping stress, thermal expansion,
instrumentation, rotating machinery, and electrical/
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utilities expertise. There are also certain practices, such
as the development and maintenance of detailed documents on
how to operate and maintain the plant that are vital not
only to a successful startup effort but for continued
operations.
Because the potential for serious disaster with chemical
processing systems is much greater than with typical
publicly-owned treatment works units, great emphasis must be
placed on health and safety. Industrial experience has
proven that risk can be reduced and controlled at acceptable
levels by planning, practicing, and continually reviewing
health and safety procedures. A health and safety
specialist experienced with chemical processing systems
should be involved with the project prior to initial startup
to assure that all health and safety planning,
documentation, and training programs are in place. A member
of the plant's permanent engineering staff should be
designated safety officer responsible for carrying out and
continually updating the program.
Preparations for initial startup should begin many months
before the end of construction, to allow time for
development of a startup plan, hiring and training
personnel, developing operations documents, arranging for
maintenance services, monitoring the final phases of
construction, developing an inventory of spare equipment and'
parts, locating specialty mechanical service shops for
particular jobs, and pre-commissioning. Startup
preparations should include planning for and locating
temporary startup expertise, in the form of full- or part-
time personnel with specialized background in starting up
and operating chemical processing facilities. These
personnel are available by contract from a number of
companies. One option for municipalities is to contract
directly for comprehensive services with a single company
that specializes in startup of similar facilities.
The initial startup of a chemical processing facility
frequently requires some modification to the system.
However, it must be remembered that the primary objective is
to get the plant to operate continuously as designed, and
not to change, optimize, or debottleneck until after
continuous operation is achieved. Experience has proven
that changes other than those where design or equipment
problems actually prevent continuous operation should be
postponed. There are a number of reasons for this approach,
including the fact that problems at low operating rates may
not be significant at high rates, and that continuous
operation is essential to maintaining personnel morale and
gaining operations experience.
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For plants that involve process and/or equipment innovations
compared to existing facilities, chemical/petroleum industry
experience suggests that process modifications amounting to
as much as ten percent of the capital cost of the plant
might be expected. In addition to modifications, other
startup expenses might run as high as another ten percent of
the capital cost of the plant. Adequate funds for both
startup and modification expenditures should be included in
the project budget. Also, immediate access to funds should
be arranged before initial startup is attempted, because
many startup expenditures must be made on an emergency
basis.
In any facility where a technology is being implemented for
the first time in a particular application, it is likely
that the facility will not achieve one hundred percent of
design capacity as originally installed. The plant owner
should have contingency arrangements for treating and
disposing of the feedstock while modifications are made on
the new facility.
Through discussions with the Carver-Greenfield municipal
plant owners, it became apparent that there are a number of
factors inherent in municipal organizations that complicate
the implementation of such complex technologies. There has
been little opportunity in the past for the. municipal
facility owner to develop startup, operations, and
maintenance expertise for unfamiliar complex systems.
Restrictions on hiring, wage scale, and promotion and
benefit practices may make it difficult to hire and keep the
more highly trained and properly experienced personnel that
are needed. This situation leads to dependence on outside
sources for expertise. These outside sources may not be
able to provide enough highly trained personnel, because the
need for such personnel in municipal facilities is a fairly
recent development. There are also a number of
institutional obstacles to implementing more complex
technologies in municipal applications, including
authorization, procurement, and purchasing practices that
are not adapted to the demands of operating such facilities.
The startup, operation, and maintenance of Carver-Greenfield
municipal sewage sludge drying plants require different
skills and procedures than are required for traditional
municipal treatment systems. By way of general assessment,
the Review Team found that, as of July, 1988, the approaches
for startup being used or planned by the Carver-Greenfield
municipal facilities visited during this review were not
adequate to successfully perform the task.
Acquiring new skills, modifying procedures, and dealing with
the restrictions imposed by municipal practices present a
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significant challenge to the owner of a chemical processing
type facility in a municipal application. Flexibility and
innovative thinking will be required to successfully
accomplish this transition.
The emphasis of this report is on startup, operation, and
maintenance of facilities. This report is not intended to
be a review of the Carver-Greenfield technology, its
appropriateness for the municipal sewage sludge drying
application, cr the design of any of the Carver-Greenfield
facilities mentioned.
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SECTION 1
INTRODUCTION
The Carver-Greenfield Process is a patented drying
technology (briefly described in Appendix A) that has been
applied to a variety of feedstocks and has been adapted for
the drying of municipal sewage sludge. There are currently
four major Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage sludge drying
facilities in various stages of completion in the United
States, three under construction and the fourth involved in
a long and difficult startup.
The Carver-Greenfield technology is substantially different
from traditional municipal wastewater and sewage sludge
treatment systems, with process characteristics, equipment,
and unit operations found in chemical processing systems.
The Process involves flammable liquid and vapor, operating a
vacuum system, and feedforward/feedback complexity. For the
purpose of simplifying this text, the phrase "chemical
processing" will be used to indicate both chemical
manufacturing and petroleum refining.
It became increasingly apparent, especially after a workshop
was sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) in 1987 on the Carver-Greenfield municipal
projects, that a number of the startup problems could be due
to difficulties with the approach and experience of the
startup personnel as much as with the design of the system.
To further explore this area, EPA decided to organize a
review team with startup and operations expertise in
chemical and refinery processes. The designer of the
Carver-Greenfield municipal plants, Foster Wheeler USA, was
instrumental in making initial contact with a number of the
larger chemical and petroleum companies in the United
States, and in assisting EPA to screen potential candidates
for the review team.
This report presents the findings and recommendations of
that industrial review team, who, on behalf of EPA, applied
their professional expertise from the chemical process
industries to the problems of starting up, operating, and
maintaining a Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage sludge
drying facility.
The chemical engineers who served on the Industrial Review
Team are (see also Appendix B):
Mr. Manuel Gonzalez of Mobil Research and
Development Corporation (twenty-four years total
technical experience),
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Mr. Frank Y. W. Liao of Mobil Research and
Development Corporation (twenty years total
technical experience),
Ms. Kathryn A. Pluenneke of Technical Services;
previously with Dow Chemical Company (eleven years
total technical experience),
Mr. Gilbert Rowe of Environmental Consultants;
previously with Exxon Corporation (thirty-seven
years total technical experience),
Mr. Martin J. Siecke, P.E., of National Starch and
Chemical Corporation (twenty-five years total
technical experience).
EPA Project Management:
Dr. Harry E. Bostian, P.E. , Chemical Engineer,
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, EPA,
Cincinnati, Ohio; previously with Exxon
Corporation and Universities of New Hampshire and
Mississippi (thirty years total technical
experience),
Dr. John M. Walker, Physical Scientist, Office of
Municipal Pollution Control, EPA, Washington,
D.C.; previously with U.S. Department of
Agriculture (twenty-eight years total technical
experience).
The members of the Review Team wish to stress that the
limited time available for this review precluded detailed
evaluation of startup problems and of operational
solutions. The Team's efforts were directed at determining
the status of current startup, operations, and maintenance
activities, so that they could provide information based
upon their professional experience by which the startup,
operations, and maintenance personnel, systems, and
approaches could be modified to better meet the needs of a
Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage sludge treatment
facility.
By way of general assessment, the Review Team found that, as
of July, 1988, the approaches for startup being used or
planned by the Carver-Greenfield municipal facilities
visited during this review were not adequate to successfully
perform the task. While conditions varied from location to
location, it was obvious to the Team that there was in
general a lack of familiarity with the requirements for
successful startup and operation of chemical processing
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systems. Problems observed (see also Appendix C) included
lack of properly trained and experienced personnel for
startup of the relatively complex installations, inadequate
use of monitoring and sampling for documentation and control
of component performance, and, as of July, 1988, not having
run all parts of the system per the design (e.g., acid
addition and sewage oil separation components). Lack of
experience with starting up chemical/refinery type systems
had apparently contributed to the problems with bringing a
major Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage sludge drying
system into full operation.
As a basis for improvement, the Review Team has met with the
several municipalities for frank and open discussions of
problems and possible solutions and has prepared this short
informational document. The Team gained a great deal of
insight regarding the problems surrounding the
implementation of the process in the municipal environment
and hopes that the plant owners and operators, the system
developer, and the system designer have also gained from
this exchange of information. The frankness and cooperation
of all those individuals who met with the Team is greatly
appreciated (see Appendix D).
1.1. Objectives and Scope of Project
This project was undertaken to develop suggestions, based on
professional experience with chemical processing systems,
for the startup, operation, and maintenance of Carver-
Greenfield municipal sewage sludge drying facilities. This
report outlines the staffing, personnel training, operations
documents, and other support that the chemical process
industries would typically provide for the successful
startup and operation of such a facility. As a specific
case, suggestions are presented for the Mercer County (New
Jersey) Improvement Authority facility, which is currently
under construction. On a larger scale, general
considerations are presented for future municipal projects
involving technologies of a similar complexity to the
Carver-Greenfield Process.
A brief update of the status of the four Carver-Greenfield
municipal facilities, particularly the City of Los Angeles
facility, is included in Appendix E. Many of the activities
which have occurred since this review was undertaken in
July, 1988, are consistent with recommendations made by the
Review Team.
The emphasis of this report is on startup, operation, and
maintenance of facilities. This report is not intended to
be a review of the Carver-Greenfield technology, its
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appropriateness for the municipal sewage sludge drying
application, or the design of any of the Carver-Greenfield
facilities mentioned.
1.2. Approach to Task
At the beginning of the project, documentation concerning
the Carver-Greenfield Process (see References) and the
Piping and Instrument Diagrams and Operating Manual of The
Mercer County Improvement Authority (MCIA) Project were
distributed to and studied by each member of the Industrial
Review Team. Additional information was gathered through a
series of meetings held in New Jersey and California and
from design and operating documents examined at the three
California locations.
The first project meeting was held in the MCIA
building in Trenton, New Jersey, on July 8, 1988. The
morning meeting was attended by the Review Team and EPA
Project Management. At noon, this group was joined by
representatives of:
MCIA and its supporting municipalities (Trenton,
Hamilton, and Ewing-Lawrence);
Clinton Bogert Associates (the prime contractor on
the MCIA Project);
Foster Wheeler USA (subcontractor to Clinton
Bogert and licensee of the Carver-Greenfield
Process for the MCIA Project);
Dehydro-Tech Corporation (licensor of the Carver-
Greenfield Process).
Included in the afternoon session was an inspection tour of
the MCIA project construction site.
Two days, July 11 and 12, were spent at the City of Los
Angeles Hyperion Energy Recovery System facility in order to
collect as much information as possible about the single
existing Carver-Greenfield facility in a municipal sewage
sludge drying application that is fully constructed and
currently in startup. Meetings were held with
representatives of:
The City of Los Angeles Hyperion Construction
Division Bureau of Engineering;
The City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works
Bureau of Engineering;
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Dehydro-Tech Corporation (providing startup
assistance);
James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers, Inc.
(providing startup and operations management);
The Ralph M. Parsons Company (providing startup
and operations management).
The visit included a tour of the City of Los Angeles'
Carver-Greenfield plant.
The third day of meetings in California, July 13, was held
at the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts' (LACSD)
Carver-Greenfield plant site. LACSD project management
provided background information about their Carver-
Greenfield installation and conducted a tour of the
construction site.
The final meetings in California took place on July 14,
1988, at FW Martinez, Inc., a cogeneration facility built,
owned, and operated by Foster Wheeler that provides the
adjacent Tosco petroleum refinery in Martinez, California
with steam and electricity. Plant management provided
information about the startup and operation of their
Carver-GreenfieId unit, which uses steam from the
cogeneration facility to dry an alum/clay sludge from a
municipal water treatment plant operated by the Contra Costa
Water District. This information was used as a basis of
comparison, and to confirm impressions about Carver-
Greenfield systems gained at other locations. FW Martinez
was the last site visited in California.
After the California trip, the recommendations of the
Industrial Review Team were assembled and used as the basis
for drafting this report. A meeting was then held at the
Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey, on September 15 and 16,
1988, for the purpose of discussing the startup, operation,
and maintenance of Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage sludge
drying facilities. Those invited to attend included the
developers and designers of the process, the owners and
operators of the four municipal facilities, the architect/
engineering firms on the four projects, consultants,
representatives of EPA and state environmental agencies,
vendors of equipment used in the process, and the Industrial
Review Team. Additional material included in the final
report was gathered from this meeting and from the
documentation listed under References.
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SECTION 2
SUPPORTING A MUNICIPAL SEWAGE SLUDGE DRYING
CARVER-GREENFIELD FACILITY
The Carver-Greenfield Process has qualified as an
"Innovative and Alternative" approach to municipal sewage
sludge disposal, according to government funding
definitions, which qualifies installations for increased
federal funding. Four major projects utilizing the process
for drying municipal sewage sludge were funded under this
incentive. The process was chosen because it was an
effective, established technology in other applications, and
because its calculated energy consumption for the
application was favorable when compared to other drying
technologies. The dried sludge product from this process
can be land-applied as fertilizer, if the raw sewage sludge
quality is good, or burned as a fuel, to recover energy.
Because of the differences in equipment design, unit
operations, process configuration, operating conditions, and
level of control required, the Carver-Greenfield Process
requires a different approach to initial startup and normal
operation and maintenance and to the financing of those
activities than is required by traditional municipal
wastewater treatment/sludge management systems. In fact,
the Carver-Greenfield Process more nearly resembles chemical
processing or petroleum refining installations than
traditional municipal systems in many ways. For this
reason, many of the approaches and procedures that are
common in the chemical process industries may be better
suited to a Carver-Greenfield sewage sludge drying facility
than traditional municipal sector approaches and procedures.
2.1. Initial Startup
As is the case with any fairly complex system, the
requirements for initial startup of a Carver-Greenfield
facility are significantly different from the requirements
for normal operation and maintenance of that facility.
Furthermore, the initial startup, operation, and maintenance
requirements of the Carver-Greenfield system, which involves
a volatile, flammable hydrocarbon and a potentially
explosive dried product, are very different from the
startup, operation, and maintenance requirements of a
typical wastewater treatment facility.
The startup and line-out of any new plant, municipal or
industrial, is much more difficult than the operation of an
established plant. Every piece of equipment in a new
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installation is a potential source of trouble if it is not
properly installed, operated, and maintained. In addition,
there may be shortcomings in the basic process or design if
the plant involves unproven technology or equipment or a new
application. Anticipating problems, avoiding problems,
recognizing trouble symptoms, and applying corrective action
are all vital startup functions. To carry out such
functions requires a quite different, larger organization
with more specialized skills than will be needed in the
permanent organization.
During initial startup of chemical processing facilities,
there should be twenty-four-hour-a-day engineering
supervision in the plant. For this reason, the startup
organization requires many more engineers than the normal
operations staff. These engineers are needed to supply
"trouble-shooting" skills that no other background can
provide, specifically, to perform heat and material balances
and evaluate equipment performance versus design, which may
include determining heat exchange coefficients, pump
head/capacity curves, and quality of liquid-liquid and
liquid-solid phase separations. Such procedures are
necessary to evaluate and prioritize the need for plant
shutdowns or changes.
In a Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage sludge drying
facility, startup engineers should have a minimum of three
to five years startup and operations experience with systems
similar to the Carver-Greenfield Process; engineering
supervisors should have ten-plus years startup and
operations experience with similar processes.
There are a number of technical disciplines that are
typically available for a chemical processing plant or
petroleum refinery startup on a system similar to a
Carver-Greenfield installation, including:
Mechanical engineering for corrosion/materials,
piping stress, thermal expansion, and other
problems;
Instrument systems engineering;
Rotating machinery engineering;
Electrical/utilities engineering;
Safety engineering;
Startup operations advisers - foremen or operators
who are experienced in the process or in similar
processes. These personnel will assist in
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training and serve as additional operating staff
during the startup.
Temporary startup expertise, in the form of full- or part-
time personnel, is available by contract from a number of
companies. The most straightforward arrangement for a
facility owner is to contract with a single company that
specializes in startup of similar facilities.
In the initial startup of a chemical plant or refinery, the
first objective is to get the plant to operate continuously
as designed, and not to change, optimize, or debottleneck
until after continuous operation is achieved. Experience
has proven that changes other than those where design or
equipment problems actually prevent continuous operation
should be postponed. There are a number of reasons for
postponing changes if at all possible, including the fact
that a problem that is significant at a low feed rate may
not be significant at a high feed rate, and that the plant
needs to be running continuously as soon as possible to
maintain personnel morale and gain operations experience.
Experience in the chemical process industries has been that
new plants, especially those involving innovative design
features or new applications, such as is the case with the
Carver-GreenfieId municipal sewage sludge drying
application, may take a relatively long time to start up and
may operate at less than one hundred percent of design
capacity as originally installed. Some modifications should
be expected in order to achieve continuous operation even at
a nominal level that is less than design capacity. Further
modifications to bring the plant up to design capacity may
require substantial capital outlays, as much as ten percent
or more of the total capital cost of the project. In
addition to the cost of modifications, typical startup
expenses, including staff training, vendors' assistance,
additional engineers, and emergency equipment parts and
service, may run as high as another ten percent of the total
capital cost of the project. Since many of the startup
expenditures are on an emergency basis, immediate access to
a contingency fund is essential.
During startup, the job procedures and other operations
documents are used and modified continually. These
documents must be upgraded not only to achieve smooth
operation, but for personnel safety. Other than crises,
initial startup is the most dangerous time in a plant's
twenty to thirty year life. Subsequent startups are also
dangerous.
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2.2. Data Collection and Retention
Complete documentation of the system's actual performance,
to be compared to design specifications, is vital to a
successful startup. In order to develop this documentation,
it is important that engineers who have an intimate
knowledge of the operating characteristics of the system's
components work closely with instrument specialists during
the final phases of construction and startup, to assure that
the facility has adequate sampling and instrument
installations to monitor and control its operation.
Comprehensive, systematic recording of operating data is
critical during startup, because, if the plant shuts down,
data analysis is the only method of tracking a developing
problem and isolating possible causes. Any correction to
plant design or operating parameters should be based on firm
data, if unwarranted and inappropriate changes are to be
avoided.
Even in an established operating plant with a computerized
instrumentation system, operators should fill out data
sheets that contain temperatures, pressures, levels, and
flows throughout the plant at least once per shift. During
startup, data should be recorded several times per shift.
As well as providing a written record, this activity causes
the operators to learn the plant layout and the normal
operating characteristics of the equipment.
Data from laboratory analyses of samples are also essential
to the startup and operations effort. Sample analysis is
the means by which activity inside the system can be tracked
and corrective action can be taken. At least once per day,
a complete set of samples should be collected from every
important point in the process along with a complete set of
written data. This gives the operations engineers a point
in time when all variables they are trying to control are
characterized. More frequent sampling should be performed
as needed during startup and whenever an operations problem
is to be evaluated.
2.3. Pre-Startup Activities
Planning for startup should begin very early and should be a
factor in making the final selection of any system that is
relatively complex compared to typical wastewater
treatment/sludge management operations. This early
beginning is important for the municipal owner and/or
operating authority, because it allows time to understand
and make allowances for the needs of this different type of
facility. Early startup planning considerations include
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hiring and training staff, procuring startup and maintenance
expertise, making arrangements for the treatment and
disposal of the feedstock while the system is not up to
design capacity, and procuring and making arrangements for
readily accessible startup funds.
Plant management should spend the year before startup on
organizational activities to remove foreseeable obstacles as
long in advance as possible. Because hiring and training is
time-consuming, an important goal of these endeavors is to
phase people and talents into the support organization for
the facility. Pre-startup activities should include:
Development of a detailed startup plan;
Hiring and training plant operations and
maintenance staff;
Development of operations documents;
Development of emergency response plans and
documents;
Development of contract maintenance availability;
Checking instrumentation and adding
instrumentation and sample points so that
performance of each piece of equipment can be
tracked;
Development of warehouse parts and equipment
inventory based on manufacturers' recommendations
and evaluation of breakdown probability;
Locating specialty mechanical service shops for
such services as rotor balancing, motor rewinding,
hard surfacing, etc.;
Pre-commissioning (testing plant construction at
operating conditions with water, air, or steam).
A major milestone in the pre-startup phase of the project is
mechanical completion, the date when the construction
contractor has satisfactorily finished construction, with
all components properly installed, the system successfully
pressure tested, all motors turning in the proper direction,
all instruments properly calibrated, and all control valves
opening and closing as specified. After mechanical
completion, operations personnel can begin pre-
commissioning.
Pre-commissioning usually takes the form of using water,
2-5
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air, and steam to simulate normal plant operating
conditions. This allows equipment to be checked using
non-hazardous materials that can be dumped or vented without
problems. Regardless of the quality of the design work,
this exercise uncovers omissions and problems that need
correcting. If the design involves unfamiliar equipment and
concepts, these are given priority for check-out, to allow
time for possible modifications. Sometimes the problems
identified in pre-commissioning could pose a major problem
to startup.
2.4. Plant Staffing for Normal Operation and Maintenance
Although the number of personnel varies with the design,
size, and layout of each particular facility, there are
certain talents and skills that are necessary for the
successful operation of any Carver-Greenfield municipal
sewage sludge drying plant. Because the light oil process
and the municipal sewage sludge application are relatively
recent, the opportunity for sharing staff with other similar
plants is limited. Therefore, it is critical that all plant
requirements be anticipated so that qualified personnel will
be available when needed. The staffing effort should start
long in advance of startup, to allow adequate time for
recruiting personnel with specialized skills and for
training personnel.
It generally takes two to five years in process operations
for an engineer to become proficient in field applications
of what he was exposed to in a college or university. A
substantial part of this proficiency comes from working with
other engineers with substantial field experience. In the
case of a Carver-Greenfield facility where there are only a
handful of experienced engineers available in the U.S.
today, it would be advisable to acquire process operations
experience from the chemical and refining industries. This
would create an experience base for in-house technical
personnel development.
In the experience of the chemical process industries, it is
necessary to have engineers working days and on call nights
and weekends to analyze problems as they develop and to
devise and implement solutions in a timely fashion. The
nature of the equipment and process steps require
engineering training in the unit operations present in a
particular plant, to perform the necessary calculations and
devise and implement procedures to evaluate the performance
of each piece of equipment.
The Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage drying control system
is complex enough that an inexperienced operator will have
,2-6
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difficulty working with it until he gains experience. In
addition, the hazards of processing hot flammables bring
significant risks of fire, explosion, and personal injury.
For these reasons, it is advisable to have control room and
outside operators with chemical plant or refinery experience
in order to reduce risks to an acceptable level and assure
successful operation.
Shift and operations supervisors should have experience at a
control room operator or higher ' level in similar unit
operations and operations involving flammable hydrocarbons.
Related experience that would be of value includes:
Evaporation or distillation operations;
Particular equipment, such as oil/water
separators, coalescers, devolatilizers, or
centrifuges;
Solids handling;
Sludge or slurry processes.
If the engineer, operator, or foreman applicant has no
experience with unit operations or equipment similar to that
in the Carver-Greenfield Process, almost any chemical plant
or refinery operations experience is still of value. At
least this would assure some familiarity with nonambient
operating conditions, process control systems, heat
exchange, and health and safety procedures in the presence
of hazardous substances. In the absence of chemical plant
or refinery experience, background in the operation of
mechanical equipment or systems, such as large engines or
boilers, would be beneficial.
In the case of maintenance personnel, experience with
similar equipment is a great asset. For maintenance
planning and warehousing of spare parts, lack of experience
with a process of similar complexity and equipment is very
difficult to overcome.
Laboratory personnel should have experience with analyses of
similar complexity, preferably having used some of the same
procedures and types of equipment.
2.5. Personnel Training
It will take approximately six months to train a totally
inexperienced operator to work in a Carver-Greenfield
municipal sewage sludge drying facility and three months to
train someone with process or equipment operations
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background. Engineers and operations and maintenance
supervisors should have a minimum of three months to learn
the process and plant.
The operations documents are the most essential source of
training for any plant. Engineers and operations and
maintenance supervision can prepare, use, correct, and
expand these documents in a self-education procedure.
Sessions for operators should be supervised, and sections of
the documents that repeatedly cause difficulties should be
rewritten or expanded.
In addition to the operations documents, video-taped or live
classroom sessions on the basics of physics and chemistry,
heat transfer, evaporation, fluid flow, etc. give a broader
picture of why and how things occur in the process.
A very important training aid is a scale model of the
facility, especially when construction is not complete
enough to see physically how the pieces described in the
operations documents fit together in the field.
Hands-on training at a pilot- or full-scale facility is
always a tremendous asset. A substitute for this is
computer modeling to simulate hands-on operating experience.
In-plant trainig at other Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage
sludge drying plants that are already in startup or
operation would be of significant value to plant management
and engineers. Depending on startup status, such visits
could also be useful to operations and mechanical personnel.
Vendors of equipment and instrumentation are usually good
sources for training of instrument, maintenance, and
operations supervisors.
An essential segment of employee training for all plant
personnel is health and safety. The Carver-Greenfield
Process involves flammable liquids and potentially explosive
vapors. Minimum health and safety training includes
emergency procedures and information on proper handling
techniques for chemicals present in the plant. Safety
meetings for reviewing material and presenting new material
should be held on a monthly basis after the plant is
operational.
2.6. Operations Documents
In the experience of the chemical process industries, it has
proven to be essential in both initial startup and normal
operation to have certain documents in place, and to keep
2-8
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these documents updated:
Health and safety writeups - These documents
include important health and safety considerations
for the chemicals and operating conditions present
in the plant. Material Safety Data Sheets and
other manufacturers' bulletins giving information
on special handling requirements and protective
equipment are included, as well as the locations,
testing, and maintenance schedules for fire
extinguishers, pressure relief devices, eyewash
and shower stations, and sprinkler systems.
Emergency procedures are covered, plant evacuation
routes listed. Health and safety writeups must
comply with state and federal regulations.
Operating manual - This document gives a
generalized description of what the process is and
how it works. It describes how the plant is to be
started up, shut down, and operated during normal
periods, as well 'as how to handle emergencies such
as power or steam failure. The operating manual
should include manuals from equipment suppliers
which describe equipment operation. A first
version of the operating manual is normally
prepared by the plant designer. A more complete
version should be prepared by the technical staff
prior to startup.
Operating or job procedures - A collection of
detailed instructions which describe,
step-by-step, how to do each particular job that
has been described in general in the operating
manual. For example, the operating manual may
say, "Pump water from Tank 1, using Pump 1, to
Tank 2, until a 50 percent level has been
established." The job procedure for this
operation will give step-by-step instructions of
how to accomplish the task, including very
detailed descriptions, such as the position of
every valve in the system, what pressure the pump
pressure gauge will read, and how long the
transfer will take under normal conditions. It
will also contain instructions for handling minor
problems, using appropriate protective equipment,
and responding to emergencies. Job procedures
also usually contain special instructions to be
followed if the system has been out of service for
maintenance. Operating procedures are very
specific and concise, rarely more than two or
three pages in length, because they deal with
simple component procedures, not complex combined
2-9
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component procedures. It is very desirable that
these procedures be prepared by the new operators
as part of their training program.
Maintenance procedures - These procedures are as
specific and detailed as operating procedures.
They give step-by-step descriptions of how to
ready a piece of equipment for maintenance and how
to perform the maintenance, listing the tools that
are required, and often listing what spare parts
should be kept on hand and where they can be
found. There is usually a special section on
instrumentation maintenance and calibration.
These detailed procedures should be prepared by
maintenance personnel, with input from the
technical and operations staff, during their
training program.
Laboratory procedures - These are step-by-step
written procedures for performing all analyses
necessary for the control of the system. For a
Carver-Greenfield system, these analyses might
include moisture in feedstock and product, oil in
product, oil in condensate, oil in wastewater,
condensate pH, and heavy and light oil
distillation. Laboratory procedures also include
safety and health' information and procedures.
Plant analytical personnel review and, where
necessary, revise these procedures which are
initially prepared by the designer or licensor.
The operations documents are important tools for training
new personnel. Use of these documents by the plant manager,
engineers, foremen, technicians, operators, and maintenance
staff during pre-startup and startup is both a training
exercise and an excellent method of identifying inaccuracies
and omissions in the documents. The documents should be
used and revised continually, especially during startup, so
that they accurately reflect the most current expertise for
operating and maintaining the plant.
2.7. Health and Safety Documentation and Procedures
Introducing more complex technologies, such as the
Carver-Greenfield Process, into the municipal environment
will also, in most cases, introduce unfamiliar risks due to
the unfamiliar substances, equipment, and procedures in the
new facility. Although health and safety documentation and
procedures are mentioned elsewhere in this report, they are
of such critical importance that they merit special
discussion.
2-10
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Over many years, the chemical process industries have
experienced accidents involving hazardous and toxic
substances. In response to this experience, these
industries have developed methods of minimizing the risk of
accidents that are foreseeable due to the nature of the
substances, equipment, and operations present in a plant.
These methods of minimizing risk are strictly followed, not
only to avoid injury to employees, but to avoid financial
injury to the corporation due to lawsuits, down-time, and
costly repairs to facilities.
It is strongly recommended by the Review Team that the
prospective owners and/or operators of chemical processing
type facilities borrow from the experiences of these
industries rather than go through a dangerous learning curve
that involves repetition of past chemical plant and refinery
accidents.
In a typical industrial facility, there is a health and
safety officer or department that is responsible for seeing
that certain guidelines are followed. It is recommended
that in any more complex municipal facility, one of the
plant supervisors be appointed health and safety officer,
and that certain activities be included in the job
description:
Train or oversee training of new personnel -
Before new personnel can work in the facility for
the first time, they must receive intensive
indoctrination regarding potential risks and how
to avoid them. Initial training should include
"right-to-know" information about the health
aspects of exposure to materials present in the
plant, discussion of the explosion and fire
hazards specific to each part of the plant,
training in safety procedures (such as proper
tagging of equipment to avoid accidental operation
during maintenance), and emergency procedures;
Conduct or supervise continuing employee training
program - All plant personnel should attend
monthly training sessions (plus emergency sessions
as needed), at which new health and safety
developments are discussed and initial training
material is reviewed, reinforced, and expanded;
Investigate and report on work-related illnesses
and injuries, including required OSHA and NIOSH
reporting;
Maintain and update emergency response plans;
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Review issued work permits, to assure compliance
with procedures;
Review designs and inspect completed work for
safety before placing in service.
It is advisable to involve as many plant personnel as
possible, especially front-line supervision and union
representatives, in implementing the health and safety
program. This helps assure compliance and communication to
all groups of personnel.
It is necessary to have a designated supervisor on call for
emergencies, twenty-four hours per day, seven days per
week. The "on-call" schedule should be posted at
telephones.
An essential part of a good health and safety program is
developing and drilling personnel in emergency response
procedures. In an emergency, personnel must be able to act
without hesitation, relying on their response procedure
training, in order to avoid injury. The Emergency Response
Plan should give specific answers to questions such as:
Who is in charge?
Who is the spokesperson?
Who calls the fire department or other emergency
services?
Who contacts the regulatory agencies?
Who informs the treatment works supplying sludge
to the plant, and how should they respond in their
own locations?
Who will ask for and who will provide plant
security in case of a major incident?
Who will interface with community leaders and the
media, and how and where will he meet with their
representatives?
Defining specific roles and responsibilities is essential to
the success of any health and safety plan. Each employee
should know exactly what he must do, and he must also know
what other employees in the plant will be doing during an
emergency. The plant emergency organization should be
posted in clear view in several locations in the plant and
reviewed in monthly safety meetings. Telephone numbers that
may be needed during an emergency, including fire
2-12
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department, ambulance, and environmental regulatory
agencies, should be posted by telephones.
A great deal of time and effort is required to maintain good
health and safety practices in the typical chemical
processing facility. A similar level of effort should be
anticipated and planned for by the prospective owners and/or
operators of municipal facilities involving such
technologies.
2.8. Technology Acquisition and Retention
Each plant is unique, with idiosyncrasies due to individual
pieces of equipment, plant design, and layout. For this
reason, initial startup of a new facility is a learning
experience for all personnel, even those with many years of
startup and operations background. Consequently, it is
important to collect as much information as possible from
the licensor, designer, and equipment vendors. During
startup, personnel devise methods of getting particular jobs
done, and learn to detect and act upon early signs of
developing trouble. In order to assure continued successful
operation of the plant, this accumulated knowledge needs to
be retained in the facility in the form of operations
documents and experienced personnel.
A very important element in any startup plan is a procedure
for transfer of accumulated operations expertise from
temporary startup personnel. One method of achieving this
transfer is for permanent plant personnel to accompany
temporary startup personnel and observe their activities.
When the permanent personnel take over a function, the
startup personnel can accompany and supervise. Acquired
expertise is also stored and transferred by continually
updating operations documents and bringing any changes to
the attention of plant personnel.
There is a critical need to retain permanent staff members
after training, especially because the Carver-Greenfield
municipal sewage sludge drying application is relatively
new. In the case of any new type of facility, there is no
existing pool of experienced manpower from which to draw
information or new employees, so it is particularly
important to retain experienced staff.
2-13
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SECTION 3
RECOMMENDATIONS TO
THE MERCER COUNTY IMPROVEMENT AUTHORITY
The Mercer County (New Jersey) Improvement Authority (MCIA)
Carver-Greenfield sewage sludge drying facility was selected
as a specific example of a chemical process technology being
implemented in a municipal application. The Industrial
Review Team developed a number of recommendations for MCIA
based on their experience of how the startup and operation
of similar facilities are handled in a chemical plant or
petroleum refinery environment. It is expected that
applying some of the practices from these industries will be
of value in implementing relatively complex processes in
municipal applications.
Work on the MCIA facility has been halted since September,
1987, with construction approximately eighty percent
complete, because of construction contractor problems. When
construction is resumed, it will take approximately ten
months to complete. The Plant Manager should take advantage
of this unexpected delay to prepare for a challenging
startup. There are certain actions that can be taken now to
help minimize foreseeable problems and assure the success of
the initial startup and operation efforts:
Hiring an Assistant Plant Manager as soon as
possible is strongly recommended. His duties
would include serving as designated safety
officer, filling in for the Plant Manager when he
is not available, assisting in employee training,
assisting in the development of operations
documents, updating the operations documents, and
interviewing potential employees and comparing his
impressions with the results of the Plant
Manager's interview. During and after startup,
the Assistant Plant Manager would perform
engineering support functions, such as performance
evaluations of equipment, and share on-call
supervisory duty. The Assistant Plant Manager
should be a chemical engineer with at least five
years of chemical/refinery startup and operations
experience, specifically in facilities with unit
operations similar to those in the Carver-
Greenfield Process.
The Plant Manager and Assistant Plant Manager
should undertake a self-training program that
would include studying the piping and instrument
diagrams and other process information. The plant
3-1
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operations and health and safety documents should
be developed and reviewed through this self-
training, so that they will be in good condition
for the training of other personnel. Extended,
preferably hands-on, visits to the City of Los
Angeles plant, the Dehydro-Tech pilot plant, and
the Burlington Industries or other Carver-
Greenfield light oil plants are very strongly
recommended.
As an extension of self-training, the Plant
Manager and Assistant Manager should investigate
resources to be used for training of other
personnel, such as programmed instruction courses
and vendor courses. Contract arrangements for
training assistance should be made as necessary.
The Plant Manager and Assistant Plant Manager
should carefully review the talents and skills
required for startup, and decide how to satisfy
any additional temporary personnel needs. It
would probably not be feasible for MCIA to hire in
employees with the specialized skills necessary
because of hiring restrictions and the fact that
many of the positions would be temporary (less
than twelve months). One strongly recommended
alternative is to contract out the startup.
Some modifications to the MCIA plant will probably
be required during startup, for a number of
reasons: the process application is a relatively
new one, feedstock characteristics are unique to
each location in the municipal sewage sludge
application, and there are design features of the
MCIA plant that are unique to that facility, such
as the the pelletizing/granulation operation.
Chemical plant/refinery experience with relatively
innovative plants like the MCIA facility suggests
that up to ten percent of the total capital cost
of the plant may be required for modifications
during startup. In addition to the cost of
modifications, other startup expenses may run as
high as another ten percent of the total capital
cost of the project. Funds to cover both
modification and other startup expenses must be
accessible on an emergency basis, or startup
activities will be delayed.
The Plant Manager and Assistant Plant Manager
should develop a comprehensive plan of pre-startup
activities, to be implemented as soon as
construction is resumed.
3-2
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3.1. Permanent Staff
The Plant Manager and Assistant Plant Manager are the
nucleus of the permanent operations staff for the MCIA
Carver-Greenfield facility. One of their most important
functions is to interview and hire other permanent staff
members after construction resumes. The suggested schedule
for bringing these personnel into the organization is shown
in Figure 1 on page 3-4. The recommended normal operations
organization is shown in Figure 2 on page 3-5. The
suggested organization would include:
Plant Engineer - Should join the plant staff six
months before the end of construction and should
follow the same self-training program as the Plant
Manager and Assistant Plant Manager.
Responsibilities should include process and
project engineering functions such as monitoring
equipment performance, designing plant
modifications, and supervising implementation of
modifications. Should also share on-call duty.
B.S.Ch.E. plus three to five years chemical/
refinery process and operations experience should
be required.
Day Foreman - Should join the operations staff six
months before the end of construction and become
familiar with plant layout, equipment, and
design. Should study operations documents and
assist in developing operating procedures, attend
all training sessions, and assist in hiring shift
foremen and operators. Chemical processing plant
or petroleum refinery experience at control room
operator or shift foreman level is recommended.
Maintenance Foreman - Should join the operations
staff six months before the end of construction.
Should study plant layout, equipment, and
operations documents, as well as attend training
sessions and develop maintenance procedures with
input from vendor experts. Should study
installations, recommend modifications for
maintenance accessibility, and develop a list of
warehouse spare parts to be kept on hand. Should
work with plant management to develop contract
resources for special maintenance services and
develop plans for scheduled and unscheduled
shutdown mechanical work. Experience with similar
process equipment is very important.
Instrument Supervisor - Should join the operations
staff four months before the end of construction,
3-3
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go through the training program, and assist in
hiring instrument technicians. Should follow the
final phase of construction, check as-installed
instrumentation, recommend modifications, and
develop a list of parts to keep on hand.
Experience with similar instrumentation and the
same type of instrument control method is very
important.
Shift Foremen - Should join the operations staff
four months before the end of construction, go
through the training program, study the plant
layout, and help develop job procedures. Should
also help with training operators. Chemical plant
or refinery foreman or control room operator
background is recommended.
Operators - Should join the operations staff at
least three months before the end of
construction. Their pre-startup training should
include process technology, plant layout,
equipment, instrumentation, and operating and
safety procedures. Control room operators should
have chemical processing plant or petroleum
refinery experience or have demonstrated
capability in related operations, such as boiler
or engine room. Inexperienced operators require
six months training.
Instrument Technicians - Should join the
operations staff three months before the end of
construction, go through the training program,
and study vendor information on plant
instrumentation. Vocational or practical
experience is recommended.
Maintenance Staff - Should join the operations
staff a few weeks before the end of construction.
Their training should be supervised by the
maintenance foreman with the assistance of vendor
experts on specific equipment and job procedures.
Millwright/mechanic, pipefitter, and utility man
will be needed full-time; other crafts may be
contracted for as needed.
Laboratory Technicians - Should join the
operations staff two to three weeks before
startup, to become familiar with procedures and
sample schedules and handling. Should have
previous experience with similar analyses, and may
receive specific training with the licensor.
Permanent staff laboratory technicians should
3-6
-------
perform daily operations control testing, such as
percent oil in product and condensate.
Supplemental testing for heavy metals, pathogens,
certain toxic organic compounds, etc., may be
performed by an outside laboratory under contract.
3.2. Additional Startup Assistance
Because initial startup of a new facility is substantially
more demanding than continuing operation of an existing
facility, additional manpower and expertise is necessary
(Figure 3, page 3-8). Experienced engineering supervision
is required twenty-four hours per day. Special assistance
with equipment may be provided by vendors and contract
maintenance services, who should be put on notice prior to
the startup. In addition to the permanent plant staff, the
startup staff should include:
Startup Team - Should include both chemical and
mechanical engineers selected and assigned to the
plant at least two months before the end of
construction. The head of the team should be
assigned six months before the end of construction
to work with the permanent plant personnel on
pre-commissioning and commissioning schedules.
The startup team will provide twenty-four-hour-
per day technical leadership until the permanent
plant staff develops sufficient expertise and
confidence to assume operation of the plant.
Extensive experience in startup and operation of
chemical/refinery type facilities as well as
understanding of process control and
instrumentation systems is required.
Startup Maintenance Team - A group of maintenance
specialists, including a maintenance planner, a
rotating equipment specialist, and an
instrumentation expert, plus instrument men and
craftsmen to supplement the permanent plant staff
and provide twenty-four-hour-per-day coverage.
The maintenance specialists should assist in the
development of the startup plan and schedule.
This activity should take about three to four
weeks, within the three months before the end of
construction.
Process Consultants - Expert services to be
provided by the process licensor.
Vendor Experts - Should be called in as needed
when their equipment is started up or tested.
3-7
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3.3. Training Program
A training program should be developed by the Plant Manager
and Assistant Manager, with input from the Day Foreman,
Maintenance Foreman, the process licensor, and the plant
designer. The Plant Manager, Assistant Manager, Maintenance
Foreman, and Day Foreman should go through the course and
discuss and implement modifications where necessary.
The training program should be tailored to the needs of the
operating staff of this specific plant. In order to
accomplish this, plant supervision should first identify
what these specific needs are and then participate in the
selection of training materials and their preparation,
modifiying available materials to fit their plant. The
operators should be trained to acquire an integrated view of
the process in addition to the specifics of their positions.
Suggested operator training would include:
Health and safety training, including general
background as well as specific procedures;
Fundamental concepts, such as heat, temperature,
materials, steam, hydrocarbons, pressure, vacuum;
Carver-Greenfield Process specifics, sewage sludge
technology, process chemistry;
Unit operations basics, such as fluid flow, heat
transfer, evaporation, distillation, drying,
solids handling;
Specific equipment descriptions, functions, and
operating characteristics, such as pumps, heat
exchangers, boilers, centrifuges, pelletizers,
filters, conveyors, hydroextractors;
Process instrumentation descriptions and
functions;
Operating procedures;
Startup procedures.
Experienced operators should have a minimum of three months
training prior to startup. Inexperienced operators should
have up to six months training.
Training sources include:
Dehydro-Tech Corporation;
3-9
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Foster Wheeler Management Operations Ltd. (USA);
Contract training companies;
Programmed instruction supervised by in-house
engineering and operations personnel, such as
those developed by Technical Publishing Company
for maintenance and safety skills, and E.I. DuPont
training courses on topics like instruments,
boilers, chemical processing operations, and other
equipment needs;
Lectures by operations engineers from the City of
Los Angeles plant and Carver-Greenfield pilot
plants.
3.4. Startup Planning Considerations
The startup team may be composed of members of various
organizations or firms but should have a consistent nucleus
of permanent plant personnel and startup personnel assigned
for the duration of startup. During this period, personnel
should report to and follow directions from the startup
operations manager. If startup- arrangements include a
startup operations manager who is not the permanent plant
manager, the permanent plant manager needs to remain in
control of his plant, and work in close conjunction with the
startup operations manager.
The Carver-Greenfield Process is still in the early stages
of development for the drying of municipal sewage sludge.
For this reason, some process modifications may be required
during startup to achieve continuous operation. Further
modifications or debottlenecking, which may be required to
achieve design capacity, should be postponed until
continuous operation at a reduced rate is achieved.
Before any proposed modifications are undertaken, it is
critical that the operations, technical, and maintenance
teams agree on the scope of the modifications and the
benefits to be derived from them. In order to achieve this,
a plan to identify and prioritize these modifications should
be developed. This plan should include the following steps:
Problem identification and documentation;
Priority and personnel assignment;
Trouble-shooting;
Process and engineering study;
3-10
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Evaluation of alternatives;
Design;
Cost estimating;
Review and approval;
Implementation/construction;
Evaluation and documentation.
Process and engineering review of equipment operating
conditions during the various stages of the startup is
necessary to assess performance of the equipment, and
mechanical and process capabilities. A first estimate is
made, in effect, by the design engineering firm in designing
the equipment. This first estimate should be reevaluated in
detail by the startup team before startup, to anticipate the
need for circulation lines and other temporary arrangements
needed while the plant is brought up to design capacity.
The procedure is repeated again after the plant is
operating.
Operations management and process engineering personnel from
the owner's staff should be assigned as part of a project
team to follow up the project throughout all the stages of
development. This continuity will help prepare and achieve
a smoother startup. Another good practice is retaining
project and construction personnel to continue working in
the plant at the end of construction.
3.5. Assuring Continued Operations
Because it would be financially prohibitive for MCIA to
develop in-house all the skills and talents necessary for
startup of the Carver-Greenfield facility, many of the
engineering and supervisory people during the startup will
be temporary contractors. It is important that the Plant
Manager and Assistant Manager see that a plan is developed
and carried out for the transfer of technology from these
"temporaries" to the permanent staff.
3.6. Mode of Plant Operation
Based on their previous experience with systems containing
solids, the members of the Industrial Review Team would
prefer to choose continuous, seven-day-per-week, operation
to reduce the potential for difficulties caused by plugging
of piping and equipment during shutdown and restart.
3-11
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Another problem caused by intermittent operation is that
repeated temperature and pressure cycles from intermittent
operation will result in shorter equipment life.
It is recognized that the MCIA plant will not initially
receive enough sewage sludge to operate continuously. Also,
plans are being discussed to allow for flushing of equipment
with clean carrier oil when the plant is shut down and for
circulating hot carrier oil to pre-warm equipment before
startup. However, according to information from the City of
Los Angeles, it may take longer than a weekend to turn the
MCIA plant around, and, even if the turn-around can be made
over a weekend, the high weekend pay rates for personnel to
shutdown, repair, and startup may make this approach very
costly.
An important consideration in planning the mode of operation
is health and safety. The highest hazard and risk periods
in any plant operation occur during startup and shutdown.
For this reason, continuous operation is generally safer
than intermittent operation.
3-12
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SECTION 4
IMPLEMENTATION OF CHEMICAL PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES FOR
MANAGEMENT OF MUNICIPAL WASTES
Implementation of the Carver-Greenfield Process in municipal
sewage sludge drying is one case of a broader movement
toward seeking new, more sophisticated solutions to the
management of wastewater, sewage sludges, and other solid
waste disposal problems. Although the future roles of
federal and state agencies are uncertain, it is inevitable
that the requirements for the management of sewage sludge
and municipal solid waste will become more stringent.
Pioneering new applications, even of proven technologies,
for managing these wastes will continue to bring problems.
Some of the initial implementation problems of chemical
process technologies can be made less troublesome for both
the system designer and municipal owner and operator by an
increased awareness of the exacting requirements for
starting up, operating, and maintaining these new systems,
and the additional restrictions imposed by the procurement,
funding, and staffing policies that most municipal
institutions must follow. This increased awareness is
necessary to plan for and adequately provide for successful
management of chemical processing systems in municipal
applications.
4.1. Factors That Influence Facilities in Municipal
Applications
One of the factors that makes a municipal application of a
chemical process technology very different from an
industrial application is that municipal facilities are
non-profit, public service operations. In contrast,
chemical industry operations are profit motivated, and
management decisions are based primarily on economic
considerations. If the potential profit warrants the
expenditure, private industry focuses tremendous manpower
and capital on a startup or operations problem.
In a municipal facility, guidelines for management decisions
are not so clear-cut. Elected officials who influence plant
operations are very much aware of public reaction to both
apparent and real increased waste treatment and disposal
costs, and the cost has to be balanced with complicated
public health and environmental considerations. Under these
circumstances, the municipal facility manager may well be
criticized for what would be "normal" expenditures in a
similar facility belonging to a chemical or refining
4-1
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company. The owner of a new type of municipal facility
should always consider whether increased current
expenditures, especially during startup, will be offset by
longer term savings.
Another factor that makes the implementation of chemical
process technologies difficult in municipal applications is
a general lack of common experience among the personnel in
the chemical process industries and municipal sectors.
These differences start with educational background and on-
the-job training and continue through professional
experience. For example, the majority of technical
personnel in chemical processing operations are chemical
engineers by training, while the majority of technical
personnel in municipal operations are civil and sanitary
engineers. Each of these engineering disciplines and each
of these sectors (chemical processing and municipal) has its
own vocabulary, organizational characteristics, priorities,
and standard operating procedures. After a few years of on-
the-job experience, engineers in each sector begin to assume
that the approaches they use are typical and familiar to all
engineers, even though practices and experience in different
sectors are often quite different.
The differences between the chemical process industries and
the municipal sector extend to the companies and consultants
that serve them. Suppliers of technologies, services, and
equipment to the chemical/refinery industries have developed
capabilities to respond to the needs and demands of their
clientele, which may be quite different than the needs and
demands of a municipal client. Suppliers and clients are
both inclined to make certain assumptions based on their
previous experience, assumptions that may be unwarranted
when they deal for the first time with a person from a
different type of background. This situation can make
effective communication very difficult in cases where full
communication is critical. For example, the past experience
of a system designer that had traditionally served a
chemical/refinery clientele would lead that designer to
assume that the client would have substantial in-house
resources for startup and operation of a new system
involving complex technology. A municipal sector client
dealing for the first time with a chemical/refinery system
designer would probably assume that his own operations
personnel possessed adequate startup and operations
expertise for a chemical processing type of system, because
they had been successful starting up and operating municipal
systems in the past. In this case, the municipal client
would probably not ask for startup assistance, and the
chemical/refinery system designer would probably not offer
it. A likely end result of this situation would be that
additional startup and operations resources would be needed
4-2
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but not provided for when initial startup was attempted.
In addition to personnel and communications problems, there
are a number of institutional problems that create obstacles
to the successful implementation of these more complex
technologies in the municipal sector:
Municipalities and other public sector entities
generally lack the resources and time to conduct
detailed research and development work to ensure
the feasibility of a new technology. This can
cause difficulties during the startup and
operation of the new facility;
Public bidding requirements and time limits on
contracts for even minor goods and services create
timing, continuity, efficiency, and quality
control problems on municipal projects;
Municipal project management may have limited
control in selecting highly qualified construction
companies because of bidding requirements;
Specifications on municipal projects may allow for
"or equivalent" purchasing. This leads to quality
control problems if the evaluator is not
sufficiently skilled to evaluate equivalency;
Traditional municipal sector authorization and
purchasing systems may be slow and cumbersome
compared to those supporting the industrial
chemical and refinery facilities. Startup,
especially of complex systems, often demands
short-notice or emergency expenditures and
procurement;
The additional attention to architecturally
pleasing building design that may accompany
municipal projects may be at the expense of
process design considerations, e.g., equipment
layout and sizing may be inhibited. Walls and
floors also inhibit visibility in a plant. This
limitation is more critical in more complex
systems, and extra staff may be required to cover
areas that are blocked from view. Building design
can also cause accessibility problems that
increase the time required and cost for
maintenance;
Municipal facility owners may have limited
in-house engineering resources to perform
evaluations and design work. Many have
4-3
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traditionally depended on outside consultants who
do not have the responsibility for operating and
maintaining the facility once it is built. Also,
the traditional experience of municipal technical
staff and their consultants does not typically
include management of chemical processing systems;
Hiring and keeping the personnel necessary to
operate and maintain a complex facility may be
quite difficult because of hiring restrictions,
wage scale, and promotion and benefit practices
that have long been established and in place in a
municipal environment;
Funding from various sources, such as the federal
government, brings other constraints that may
impede the implementation of municipal projects.
For example, for many years regulations governing
the use of federal funds allocated under EPA's
Clean Water Act prohibited "turn-key" plants; that
is, the designer was not permitted to also
construct the facility;
Procurement is often done by the construction
contractor who is asked to reconfirm the system
design based on the specific equipment purchased.
Few general contractors have the capability to
make the process and mechanical calculations
necessary to accomplish this task where the design
involves complex technologies.
4.2. Making the Transition
Introducing chemical processing type facilities into
municipal applications represents a major transition for
municipal owners and operators. As discussed in subsection
4.1, the first step is to recognize that chemical processing
type facilities are different from traditional municipal
treatment and disposal systems and that they require very
different handling if they are to be successfully
implemented. The second step in making the transition to
more complex systems is to devise ways to meet these
different needs and to minimize limitations imposed by
governmental requirements.
Several key points should be remembered and provided for:
Technical personnel who start up complex systems
must possess highly specialized skills and
training;
4-4
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It is essential for a successful startup to follow
a very comprehensive specialized routine of
careful performance evaluation of all components
of the system as the startup proceeds;
Instrument specialists are essential in a startup,
especially to install and maintain monitoring
systems for performance evaluation;
Temporary startup personnel should work very
closely with the permanent plant personnel, so
that the acquired operations expertise will be
retained in the plant and insure continued
successful operation;
Since the municipal sector is non-profit and
service oriented, the technology used should be
cost competitive for the degree of treatment and
environmental protection afforded;
The municipal owners must work under many
governmental limitations not often found in
industrial applications.
4.3. Obtaining Necessary Skills/Training
In order to be able to identify and hire the best qualified
contractors and/or permanent personnel, the municipal
facility owner should know the process, its specific unit
operations and equipment, and the level of operations and
maintenance support required. He should also be aware that
industrial backgrounds are so specialized that many
personnel with years of chemical processing experience may
be of limited assistance in starting up or operating a
particular plant.
Specialized and direct assistance is also essential when a
traditional municipal consultant or architect/engineering
firm is involved in the project. It would be advisable for
the owner to be able to communicate directly with specific
technology consulting and engineering experts in addition to
his traditional consultants. Second only to the technology
experts, the owner should become the most knowledgeable
person on the project, because he is the one who must
ultimately deal with the problems that arise. It is
essential for the owner and his staff to have the following
information available and learned for the new system:
Basic theory of the technology and unit
operations;
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Plant design, including the function of each piece
of equipment;
Startup, shutdown, operations, and maintenance
procedures;
Hazard, risk, health, and safety considerations
and procedures;
Specifics of plant layout, including how layout
affects personnel movement and access for
maintenance and cleaning;
How the new system differs from traditional
municipal operations and what additional support
it will require.
Key plant personnel would benefit greatly from an extended
visit, possibly several months, to at least one plant using
the technology. This time would be well spent in observing
and discussing operations and maintenance with experienced
plant personnel.
Startup and operations personnel for chemical processing
systems have a totally different type of background to call
upon than traditional municipal operations personnel. Since
the startup of these complex systems is so specialized, it
will generally be more efficient for the municipal owner to
carefully contract for this qualified assistance. For the
municipal facility owner who wishes to develop the
capabilities of his own operating staff (the normal case),
qualified contract startup personnel should participate in
the startup and first few months of continuous operation,
and help train the owner's staff to assume their
responsibilities.
It is also important to take special steps to retain newly
acquired and trained personnel. The work in the new
facility is likely to be very demanding, and a system of
appropriate compensation should be provided. If the needed
talents cannot be developed and retained within the system,
an important alternative is to contract out these essential
services.
Training of maintenance personnel can be done through vendor
and other programs. Most vendors are willing to hold
training sessions on the maintenance of their equipment at
no cost or at some nominal charge to the customer. This
same type of program is usually available for plant
instrumentation. Vendors of the main control system
generally have simulators set up specifically to demonstrate
4-6
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their system and train those who have purchased, it.
Engineer, operator, and maintenance staff training can also
be contracted out to a firm qualified to train in the
operation of the particular process. Generic training
courses are of assistance in gaining generalized background,
but personnel should be exposed to the specifics of the
facility they will be expected to operate. Training and
experience with a complex technology can also be gained from
use of models and pilot plant operation.
If a facility will be using a new technology or an
established technology in a new application, pilot plant
operations should be carefully planned and conducted. In
order to serve as a representative design model, a pilot
plant should have the same feedstock and additives present
and simulate all the operations that are to be performed in
the full-scale operation. To the greatest extent possible,
the pilot plant should have the same type of equipment as
the full-scale facility. Differences between the pilot- and
full-scale plant should be minimized, because even minor
changes in scale-up are potential sources of problems.
Particular attention should be paid to duplicating the
effects of system recycle streams on overall plant operation
and material balances. Also, engineering evaluation is
needed to determine whether the pilot scale is sufficient to
allow confident scale-up of critical equipment.
4.4. Cost and Operational Expectations
In the chemical process industry, typical startup expenses
of an established technology and application run five to ten
percent of the total capital cost of a project. If a new
technology or application is involved, startup is likely to
run ten to as much as twenty percent of the total capital
cost of a project. This cost of startup includes personnel,
consumables, modifications, and other startup expenses. The
owner needs to arrange for funds to be immediately
accessible, because many startup expenditures are on an
emergency basis. Delays lead to a total absence of progress
while capital and personnel costs continue. One way of
allowing for immediately accessible funds would be to
include startup expenses as part of project capital
allocations.
The owner of a plant that involves design innovations or a
new application should expect that the new facility may not
reach one hundred percent of design capacity as originally
installed. In the chemical process industries,
modifications to achieve design capacity are usually
postponed until after continuous operation is achieved at
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the highest capacity possible as originally installed.
Postponing modifications that do not actually prevent
continuous operation is advisable for several reasons:
problems observed at low operating rates may change or
disappear at higher operating rates, and, in the worst case,
a modification that solves a problem at low operating rates
may actually cause problems at higher operating rates.
Because the design and installation of modifications is
time-consuming, especially if long-delivery items are
involved, the owner should have an interim procedure for
treating and disposing of the sewage sludge or other
feedstock that was scheduled for treatment in the new
facility. Alternative treatment and disposal plans are also
helpful in dealing with normal startup problems, such as
unscheduled down-time and off-specification product. Some
operational problems should be expected for a year after
mechanical completion even with facilities involving
familiar technologies and applications. In the case of a
new application or design innovation, this problem period
may be considerably longer than one year.
4-8
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SECTION 5
REFERENCES
1. Crumm, C.J. II, Pluenneke, K.A., "Development of an
Efficient Bioraass Drying Process and its Commercial Use
for Energy Recovery," Institute of Gas Technology
Energy from Biomass and Wastes VIII Symposium, 02/84.
2. Hyde, H.C., "Technology Assessment of Carver-Greenfield
Municipal Sludge Drying Process," PB 85-138634,
EPA-600/2-84-200, U.S. Department of Commerce, National
Technical Information Service, 12/84.
3. Raksit, S.K., Haug, R.T., "LA/OMA Project
Carver-Greenfield Process Evaluation, A Process for
Sludge Drying," LA/OMA Project, Whittier, California,
12/78.
4. Walker, J., Zirschky, J., "Summary of the 1987
Carver-Greenfield Sludge Drying Technology Workshop:
Problems and Solutions," EPA-430/09-87-010, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.,
09/87.
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APPENDICES
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APPENDIX A
THE CARVER-GREENFIELD PROCESS
The Carver-Greenfield Process is a patented drying process
invented by Mr. Charles Greenfield. "Carver" in the process
name refers to the fact that Mr. Greenfield did some of his
early process development work in a laboratory supplied by
Fred S. Carver, Inc. The Carver-Greenfield Process patents
are the property of Dehydro-Tech Corporation of East
Hanover, New Jersey.
The first commercial application for the Carver-Greenfield
Process was the processing of slaughterhouse waste, to
recover tallow and dry protein-bone meal. Since the process
was first implemented in 1961, there have been a total of
seventy-four full-scale plants put into operation worldwide,
and three more major plants are scheduled for startup by
1990. These plants have been designed to dry a wide variety
of feedstocks, including sludges from industrial and
municipal wastewater treatment facilities.
The Carver-Greenfield Process was chosen for the purposes of
this review as an example of a more complex technology that
has been adapted to a municipal sector application, the
drying of municipal sewage sludge. There are currently four
federal/state jointly funded Carver-Greenfield projects in
the United States, one is involved in a long and difficult
startup and three more are under construction.
A.I. Heavy and Light Oil Carver-Greenfield Processes
The characteristics of the Carver-Greenfield Process that
give it an advantage over other technologies in many
difficult drying applications are energy-efficiency and the
introduction of a "carrier" or "f luidizing" oil into the
feedstock. The most essential function of the carrier oil
is that it keeps the material fluid, so that it can be
pumped through the process equipment even after virtually
all of the water has been removed. This carrier oil also
enhances mixing and heat transfer, and, in some
applications, acts as a solvent for indigenous oils that are
recovered as a by-product.
In the original slaughterhouse waste application, the
carrier oil is tallow, which is relatively nonvolatile or
"heavy." A major process innovation, which was developed in
the mid-1970's, is the use of a volatile or "light" carrier
oil. A light carrier oil is easier to separate from the
dried solids than a heavy oil, but it does require more
A-l
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stringent safety procedures than a heavy oil, to avoid fires
and explosions. A total of seven Carver-Greenfield light
oil plants have been built, in addition to the four
municipal sewage sludge facilities that are in startup or
under construction in California and New Jersey.
A.2. Carver-Greenfield Multiple-Effect Evaporation
Three of the four U.S. municipal sewage plants, The City of
Los Angeles (California) Hyperion facility, The Los Angeles
County (California) Sanitation Districts facility, and The
Mercer County (New Jersey) Improvement Authority facility
share the same basic process configuration: four-stage
multiple-effect evaporation.
Multiple-effect evaporation was already a well-established,
proven technology when Mr. Charles Greenfield adapted it for
use in his original process application. Multiple-effect
evaporation is very energy-efficient compared to other
drying technologies, because it recovers heat from the water
vapor that is driven off during the drying process.
A process flow diagram for a municipal sewage sludge
four-stage multiple-effect Carver-Greenfield system is shown
in Figure 4 on page A-3. In this process configuration, the
feedstock or material to be dried (indicated by the heavy
line, moving from left to right) passes through a grinder
and into a "fluidizing" tank where it is mixed with carrier
oil and dried solids recycled from the process. Some of the
dried solids must be "added back" to the feedstock to
increase the solids concentration in the mixture and avoid
an undesirable phenomenon called "gummy phase." Acid to
control the formation of "soaps" is also mixed with the
feedstock in the fluidizing tank.
From the fluidizing tank, the process stream passes into the
first stage vaporizer, where it is heated under vacuum to
evaporate a portion of the water. The process stream then
passes through the second, third, and fourth stage
vaporizers in sequence. Virtually 100% of the water has
been evaporated out of the process stream by the time it
leaves the fourth stage vaporizer. Most of the process
stream from the fourth stage vaporizer is pumped to the
centrifuge, but a portion is added back to the fluidizing
tank to raise the solids concentration.
In the centrifuge, most of the carrier oil and the
indigenous sewage oil are separated from the dried solids in
the process stream. The process stream then passes into the
first of two "hydroextractors" or devolatilizers, where heat
is used to drive off the remaining oils as oil vapor from
A-2
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3
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the dried solids. The hot, dried solids then pass through a
cooler before being sent to storage. This dried sewage
sludge may be used as a fuel or as a fertilizer, if heavy
metals or other contaminants are not a problem.
In the upper right corner of Figure 4 are a "sewage oil
stripper" and a "flash still," where the carrier oil is
separated from the sewage oil. The carrier oil is recycled
into the system. The sewage oil can be burned as a fuel.
The energy-efficiency of this multiple-effect system is due
to the fact that an external heat source, steam, is used to
heat only the fourth stage vaporizer (by means of the flash
still). The third stage vaporizer is heated by the water
vapor that is driven off in the fourth stage; the second
stage, by the water vapor from the third stage; the first
stage, by the water vapor from the second stage.
A.3. Carver-Greenfield Mechanical Vapor Recompression
The fourth U.S. municipal sewage sludge plant, located in
Ocean County, New Jersey, will have a new feature,
mechanical vapor recompression (MVR). MVR is a proven
technology that has recently been adapted for use in the
Carver-Greenfield Process. Carver-Greenfield MVR has been
demonstrated in a commercial facility in Holland since 1983
and in pilot facilities in Italy and Holland.
Referring to Figure 5, page A-5, which shows the Ocean
County facility, the water vapor evaporated out of the
process stream in the vapor recompression evaporator, along
with the vapor from the first of two non-MVR drying stages,
passes through a powerful compressor and then back to the
heat exchangers that supply heat to the vapor recompression
evaporator. The process stream then passes from the vapor
recompression evaporator through two multiple-effect drying
stages that do not utilize MVR. The centrifuge,
hydroextractor, and sewage oil systems serve the same
functions described in subsection A.2.
One advantage of using MVR in a Carver-Greenfield system is
that it simplifies the process. In the four-effect system
described in subsection A. 2, it is necessary to add back
some of the dried solids in order to avoid problems with
"gummy phase." With MVR, the solids concentration in the
process stream entering the vapor recompression evaporator
is below the solids concentration where gummy phase occurs,
and the solids concentration out of the MVR stage is higher
than the level where gummy phase occurs. This undesirable
phenomenon is therefore contained and effectively bypassed
in the MVR drying stage.
A-4
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A second advantage of MVR is increased energy-efficiency.
The Carver-Greenfield MVR system at Ocean County is expected
to use approximately the same amount of energy as the four-
effect Carver-Greenfield municipal sewage sludge drying
systems to produce one ton of dried product, even though the
feedstock at Ocean County will contain 6% - 8% solids
compared to 18% - 22% solids at the other facilities.
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APPENDIX B
QUALIFICATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL REVIEW TEAM MEMBERS
AND EPA PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Manuel Gonzalez
Associate Engineer
Mobil Research and Development Corporation
Pennington, New Jersey 08534
(609)737-5261
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the
University of Puerto Rico (1964). Twenty-four years
industrial experience with Caribe Nitrogen Corporation,
Commonwealth Oil Refining Company, Davy McKee Corporation,
and Mobil Research and Development Corporation. Special
expertise in design, process development, startup, trouble-
shooting, and other support functions for refinery and
petrochemical manufacturing facilities. Background also
includes petrochemical plant operations and management, plus
technical support for a multiple-effect evaporation system.
Currently provides technical services and operations
assistance to Mobil facilities worldwide.
Frank Y. W. Liao
Senior Associate Engineer
Mobil Research and Development Corporation
Pennington, New Jersey 08534
(609)737-4955
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Chung Yuan
College (1965) and Master of Science in Chemical Engineering
from the University of Mississippi (1968). Twenty years
industrial experience with the Mobil Corporation, ANG Coal
Gasification Company, and ITT Rayonier, Inc., including nine
years experince in refinery and petrochemical plant
operations support. Special expertise in multiple-effect
evaporative and fluidized-bed incineration systems.
Designed, started up, provided trouble-shooting services,
and developed training manual and job procedures for a
six-effect evaporation system. Current responsibilities
include environmental engineering support for capital
projects and solving pollution control problems for Mobil
facilities worldwide. Member of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers and the Water Pollution Control
Federation.
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Kathryn A. Pluenneke
Proprietor
Technical Services
590 Mountain Avenue
Gillette, New Jersey 07933
(201)647-7424
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the
University of Houston (1978). Four years experience with
the Dow Chemical Company, plus seven years as an independent
consultant. Dow experience in chemical and petrochemical
plant operations and support services. Previously a
licensed water and wastewater treatment operator in the
state of Texas. Currently proprietor of business that
provides support services to companies involved in technical
consulting, engineering, and engineered products. Services
offered include research of technical subjects and technical
markets, and technical writing. Member of the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Gilbert Rowe
Environmental Consultants
110 Hillcrest Avenue
Morristown, New Jersey "07960
(201)267-2920
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from City
College of New York. Thirty-five years industrial
experience with Exxon, plus two years as an independent
consultant. Exxon experience covered all phases of refinery
and petrochemical plant design, startup assistance, and
technical and operations management; as well as developement
of wastewater and solid waste treatment technology and
design of treatment plants. Responsibilities included
personnel and organizational development, in addition to
startup, and after startup technical and operations
supervision. Currently provides consulting services in
hazardous waste and wastewater management; problem
assessment and mitigation; and planning, study, and
evaluation of other environmental problems. Author of
"Evaluation of Treatment Technologies for Listed Petroleum
Refinery Wastes," a major report for the American Petroleum
Institute, May, 1988.
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Martin J. Siecke, P.E.
Safety Manager
Safety and Environmental Affairs
National Starch and Chemical Corporation
10 Finderne Avenue
Bridgewater, New Jersey 08807
(201)685-5119
Licensed Professional Engineer with Bachelor of Science in
Chemical Engineering from Newark College of Engineering
(1963). Twenty-five years experience with the National
Starch and Chemical Corporation, including seventeen years
in all phases of chemical and petrochemical plant startup,
operations, and maintenance. Responsibilities involved
staffing, training, and organizational development.
Previously a licensed industrial wastewater operator in the
state of Illinois and Chairman of the Supervisory Committee
for the Plainfield Joint Meeting Sewerage Authority.
Currently responsible for National Starch's health and
safety concerns, including personnel training for risk and
crisis management. Member of the American Society of Safety
Engineers, National Fire Protection Association, and
National Society of Professional Engineers.
John M. Walker, Ph.D.
Physical Scientist
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, WH-595
Office of Municipal Pollution Control
Washington, D.C. 20460
(202)382-7283
Bachelor of Science from Rutgers University (1957); Masters
(1959) and Doctors (1961) degrees from Purdue University.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization Postdoctoral Fellow in
Rothamsted Experiment Station in England. Twelve years with
the U.S. Department of Agriculture in environmental and
agricultural research, including development of techniques
for composting and land application of sewage sludge.
Twelve years with EPA. Current responsibilities include
evaluation and improvement of design and operation of
technologies for sludge management and development of
guidelines for safe use and disposal of sludge. Fellow of
American Association for the Advancement of Science; member
of Water Pollution Control Federation and many other
professional organizations. Author of more than 150
publications.
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Harry E. Bostian, Ph.D., P.E.
Chemical Engineer
Water and Hazardous Waste Treatment Research Division
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
(513)569-7619, FTS-684-7619
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Bucknell
University (1954), Masters in Chemical Engineering from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1956), and Doctor of
Philosophy in Chemical Engineering (1959) from Iowa State
University. Thirty years technical experience with EPA,
Universities of New Hampshire and Mississippi, and Exxon
Corporation. Experience in distillation, solvent
extraction, fluidization, computer applications, operations
research, municipal and industrial pollution control
including sludge management, energy-environmental
considerations. Teaching of almost entire undergraduate and
graduate chemical engineering currricula. Advisor for
masters and doctoral candidates. Over 70 papers, reports,
and theses, including presentations at meetings and
publications in journals that are of international stature.
Contributed to "Technology Assessment of Carver-Greenfield
Municipal Sludge Drying Process" (Reference 2, p 5-1) as
Technical Manager for EPA during final editing and review.
Member of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Water
Pollution Control Federation, American Association for
Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, and other
honoraries.
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APPENDIX C
OTHER OBSERVATIONS BY
INDUSTRIAL REVIEW TEAM MEMBERS
Note to reader: The observations in this appendix are based
solely on information available to the Industrial Review
Team in July, 1988. Some of the changes and
developments that have occurred since July, 1988, at the
Los Angeles City (LAC) and other facilities are
discussed in Appendix E, "Status of the Carver-
Greenfield Municipal Sewage Sludge Drying Facilities: A
Brief Update."
As of July 12, 1988, the LAC plant had not yet operated
continuously for a period of time sufficient to determine
whether design modifications may be required.
Compared to the full-scale Carver-Greenfield municipal
sewage sludge drying facilities, the Los Angeles - Orange
County Metropolitan Area (LA/OMA) pilot plant work involved
a different carrier oil, different feedstock, a single-stage
system, and no sewage oil/carrier oil separation.
The abrasive characteristics of the LAC sludge were
unexpected, and it is uncertain whether erosion problems are
now under control.
LAC had not yet attempted acid addition as per design to
control formation of soaps.
The unsolved problem of carryover of solids into the
oil/water separation system inhibits plant function at LAC.
Much of the solids carryover appears to be from the
hydroextractor overhead.
LAC had not yet operated the sewage oil/carrier oil
separation system as of July 12, 1988. The separation has
not been attempted in the absence of the facilities to burn
the product sewage oil.
There were still unresolved startup and shutdown problems at
LAC as of July 12, 1988, including:
Line plugging and exchanger fouling at low flow rates;
Formation of clinkers during hydroextractor warm-up.
The fire and explosion hazards associated with the process
were not fully appreciated until after the fact at LAC.
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Health and safety procedures and training were inadequate by
chemical or refining industry standards.
If the Mercer County Improvement Authority (MCIA) milling
operation is not effective, the fouling problems with the
spiral heat exchangers due to human hair that LAC has
experienced may be more frequent at MCIA, where the
undigested sludge feedstock is more inclined to have intact
fibers than digested sludge.
A startup team with the types of skills and experience that
a chemical processor or petroleum refiner would concentrate
on an initial startup was lacking at the LAC plant as of
July 12, 1988.
The Industrial Review Team recommends that startup and
operations personnel at LAC have chemical plant or refinery
experience because of the similarity of the plant to
industrial facilities.
At LAC, the carrier oil concentration in the product is
still higher than the design level of 1 to 2 percent. High
carrier oil concentration occurs during cold startups.
Similar carrier oil levels at MCIA could cause problems for
using the dried product as a soil conditioner.
On-line analyzers at LAC were not functioning as designed
when the Review Team visited the plant. The control of
oil/sludge ratio was based on a daily material balance,
which is not adequate to maintain product quality control.
However, there is optimism regarding new on-line analyzers.
Regular shutdown and startup at LAC takes about three days,
to allow time for cool-down, draining, and clean-out. The
tentative MCIA plan to operate five days and shut down
weekends may not be feasible in view of this turn-around
time.
Equipment layout in the LAC plant makes maintenance
difficult. For example, the tube-bundle in the condenser
unit cannot be pulled out because there is not enough head
space.
The LAC plant suffers from high personnel turn-over due to
wage scale and job classification problems.
The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts (LACSD) plant
has incorporated modifications to their system in order to
avoid some of the LAC problems.
The LACSD plant has a central control room with three sets
of CRT stations to monitor and control the process. There
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is also a supervisor CRT station to back up the operator's
control unit.
LACSD plans to use an engineering contractor to provide
technical assistance during initial startup.
Training materials prepared at LAC could probably be made
available and would be of value to others.
LAC has had far too little continuous operating time to
experience expected system problems resulting from buildup
of impurities in the system, such as sewage oils and fines.
Tungsten carbide has been the most successful hard-facing
material used at the LAC facility.
The inertia of the LAC municipal purchasing system has
required building the spare parts inventory to four times
the manufacturer's recommended level.
Based on their most recent experience, LAC expects a train
of spiral heat exchangers to plug every six to eight weeks.
Based on pilot plant experience, LACSD anticipates some
problems with odor.
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APPENDIX D
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Review Team and EPA wish to express their gratitude for
the excellent cooperation and assistance of those parties
involved with the Carver-Greenfield Process who provided
information, plant visits, and meeting facilities. Special
thanks to:
The City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works
Bureau of Engineering;
The City of Los Angeles Hyperion Construction
Division Bureau of Engineering;
Clinton Bogert Associates;
Dehydro-Tech Corporation;
Foster Wheeler Martinez, Inc.;
Foster Wheeler USA Corporation;
James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers, Inc.;
The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts;
The Mercer County Improvement Authority and its
supporting municipalities, Trenton, Hamilton, and
Ewing-Lawrence;
Mobil Research and Development Corporation;
The Ralph M. Parsons Company.
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APPENDIX E
STATUS OF THE CARVER-GREENFIELD
MUNICIPAL SEWAGE SLUDGE DRYING FACILITIES:
A BRIEF UPDATE
The purpose of this appendix is to provide the reader with
information on developments that have occurred in the four
Carver-Greenfield municipal projects (the City of Los
Angeles, Los Angeles County, Mercer County Improvement
Authority, and Ocean County) since this review was
undertaken in July of 1988. The owners of these facilities
were of great assistance in providing information to the
Industrial Review Team and were further involved with this
review project as recipients of the Drafts of this report
issued for comments on September 9, 1988, and on May 18,
1989. Their representatives also participated in the
meeting held in Princeton, New Jersey, on September 15 and
16, 1988, for the purpose of the Industrial Review Team's
discussing their findings and making recommendations to each
municipality and to the system designer and developer.
E.I. The City of Los Angeles Facility
When this review project was undertaken, the City of Los
Angeles Hyperion Energy Recovery System (HERS) Carver-
Greenfield municipal sewage sludge drying facility was the
only one of the four EPA-funded Carver-Greenfield municipal
facilities that was fully constructed and in startup. For
this reason, the HERS Carver-Greenfield plant was extremely
important to this project and was the basis for many of the
comments and recommendations made by the Industrial Review
Team.
A number of changes have occurred at the HERS facility and
in the Carver-Greenfield operation since the Industrial
Review Team visited in July, 1988. At an August, 1988,
meeting at Los Angeles City Hall, the President of the
City's Board of Public Works requested that all of the
engineering companies involved in the project redouble their
efforts to achieve consistent and continuous operation of
the Carver-Greenfield and sludge combustion systems. At
this meeting, it was also announced that the system
designer, Foster Wheeler, would supply four petrochemical/
petroleum refinery startup/operations experts to serve as
twenty-four-hour-per-day shift advisers. In addition, the
overall management responsibility for HERS operations was
shifted from the City's construction to the City's
operations department. This change recognized the need to
proceed forward into the operations phase, following the
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substantial construction phase effort that had successfully
improved the quality and reliability of equipment supplied
under various construction contracts.
A great deal of progress has been associated with these
changes since July, 1988. Even though an unfortunate
maintenance accident, which occurred in early October,
slowed progress by keeping the combustion and sludge drying
systems shut down until the end of the year, the plant
underwent comprehensive cleaning, vacuum testing, and
equipment and instrumentation review as a preliminary step
to continued full-scale startup activities. All operations
and maintenance manuals (including safety procedures) were
updated. Also, during the last quarter of 1988, in-plant
studies revealed that some of the slurry pumps had been
installed with undersized motors. Corrections were made
where possible to achieve near design velocities in the
spiral heat exchangers.
.Following this shutdown period, the improvements in the
operation of the sludge drying system were dramatic. This
improvement was achieved by attempting to operate two of the
three trains at all times, per the original design concept.
During the first 69 days of 1989, more sludge was dried than
during the entire year of 1988 (see Figure 6, page E-3).
Continuous operation was achieved with dry sludge being
produced 83 days out of the 90 'days in the first quarter of
1989. Between February 3 and March 31, dry sludge was
produced on 57 consecutive days, a facility record. Most of
this dry sludge powder was burned to generate steam and
electricity.
According to plan, the operating level of the Carver-
Greenfield system was increased incrementally during the
first quarter of 1989 to somewhat below 50% of design
capacity, as the operators gained familiarity with the
system and as the comprehensive performance testing of each
of the various components continued. All parts of the plant
were operated, including the flash still to remove sewage
oil and acid addition to inhibit the formation of soaps.
With continuous operation, many parts of the plant that did
not operate well in an "up and down" mode began to operate
as designed. Such previously troublesome operating areas as
the spiral heat exchangers, the centrifuges, and the
evaporator non-condensable over-pressuring began to operate
acceptably.
On March 23, 1989, the six-month scheduled participation of
the four-member Foster Wheeeler startup team came to an
end. Referring again to Figure 6, during April, the plant
was shut down most of the month, and little dry sludge was
produced. In May, the plant performed close to its February
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level. However, in June, production dropped off, and
twenty-four-hour-per-day engineering supervision was
reinstituted at the end of the month. Under this
supervision, there was a dramatic improvement in July, when
a record 2,407 tons of dry sludge was produced.
It is important to note that, to date, no specific design
problems have been identified that would limit dry sludge
production to 50% of design capacity. It is hoped that
progress will continue in increasing the output of the
system incrementally toward design capacity.
Many of the observations and/or recommendations made by the
Industrial Review Team for EPA have been addressed in Los
Angeles. Persons highly skilled in startup of complex
technologies that involve equipment and unit operations
similar to Carver-Greenfield were present and working as
advisers on every shift. Startup procedures that had been
developed through many years of experience in the chemical
manufacturing and petroleum refining industries were
followed. This may have occurred coincidentally as the Los
Angeles startup progressed, and, to some degree, it may also
be a positive result of the Industrial Team's review. For
whatever reason, the operational improvements have been
dramatic.
These operational improvements strongly emphasize the
necessity for specialized petrochemical engineering startup
expertise and techniques in a municipal sewage sludge drying
Carver-Greenf ie Id system. It is hoped that these
specialized skills will continue to be available during
startup at Los Angeles and the other municipal facilities
using the Carver-Greenfield technology until the functional
capabilities of the system can be fully tested. This is
very important in determining the suitability of the current
design, the need for any possible further modification of
design and operating procedures, and the ultimate
cost-effectiveness of this technology for drying municipal
sewage sludge.
E.2. Facilities Under Construction
At the expanded Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
(LACSD) sludge management facility, construction of the
Carver-Greenfield system is 98% complete, and the
incineration system where the dried sludge product will be
burned is 50% complete. Key technical and maintenance
personnel have been present during the latter stages of
construction. Contractual arrangements have been made by
LACSD for startup assistance by technical personnel with
specialized knowledge of the Carver-Greenfield system.
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Construction of the Ocean County, New Jersey, Carver-
Greenfield facility is due to be completed in May, 1990.
Ocean County has budgeted substantial funds for engineering
review and startup of the facility, including funds to pay
for contract engineering supervision from a specilized
startup and operations firm that has experience with
Carver-Greenfield sludge drying systems. After construction
is completed, there will be a nine-month period for
commissioning, trial runs, and acceptance testing. During
this period, permanent plant personnel will be trained under
the direction of the contracted startup engineers, so that
they will be able to take over operation of the plant. The
construction contractor will not be released from
responsibility until after the nine-month system check-out
is successfully completed.
Construction of the Mercer County Improvement Authority
(MCIA) Carver-Greenfield facility was halted in September,
1987, because of construction contractor default. As of
August, 1989, bidding for the completion of the facility was
underway. However, since the first bid responses were
rejected as high, it is difficult to estimate a date a which
construction may resume. There is approximately ten months
of construction work remaining to complete the facility.
While construction work has been halted, MCIA has authorized
considerable engineering assessment and design modifications
for the facility. MCIA is currently exploring the
possibility of contracting for specialized startup
engineering assistance.
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