Waste Management

Introduction
In any industry, it is very important to be able to manage the waste produced from any processes
to avoid polluting the environment and high consumption of energy. In order to avoid the
negative impacts, a tool known as waste hierarchy is used to evaluate a process in terms of its
sustainability. The main objectives of the waste hierarchy are to minimize the amount of waste
generated and maximize the benefits of using a product. If the waste hierarchy is applied
correctly, it can benefit the industry by reducing harmful waste, such as emission of greenhouse
gases. Figure 1 shows the waste hierarchy of the most and least favoured option in the industry.

Figure 1. The waste management hierarchy

As shown in Figure 1, source reduction and reuse is the most favoured option among
the other options. This is because it is the most eco-friendly strategy in managing waste [1].
The objective of this method is to reduce waste at the source. Source reduction is also known
as waste prevention method. There are many ways to apply this method. For a chemical plant,
this method can be applied using a different approach or raw materials to prevent the production
of unwanted product. By doing so, the energy consumption, toxicity of the waste produced and
presences of pollutants in the plant can also be reduce. This approach can also save the cost of
treating the produced waste.
 If the waste prevention method is not applicable to manage the waste in a chemical
plant, recycling and composting method can be used to replace the first method as it is the
second most preferred method based on the hierarchy. In the recycling and composting method,
recyclable waste or unwanted product can be used reused in the process line. Industry can use
the recyclable waste as a raw materials or use it to manufacture a new product [1]. This method
helps the industry to reduce the emission of gases or pollutants to the environment. Besides
that, this method also enable the industry to save cost on buying raw materials for the processes.

Some of the wastes produced by a chemical plant are not recyclable. For one to manage
these unrecyclable wastes, energy recovery method can be applied to convert these wastes to
provide renewable energy source for a chemical plant [1]. Commonly, these wastes are
converted to produce electricity or heat to generate energy source for the plant. Carbon
emission can be reduce if this method is applied in the industry. However, there will be some
amount of residue that needs to be disposed. Since the residues are not reusable, it will be
dispose to a landfill.

The least preferred method would be treatment and disposal method. Those wastes that
are unable to be recycle or use for energy recovery need to undergo treatment before disposing
it to a landfill. These treatment can be chemical, biological or physical [1]. Once it has been
treated, the wastes are usually disposed to a landfill centre. The landfill centre are designed
with a number of facilities, such as leaching facility, to ensure the industry meets the
requirements established by their Department of Environment.
Waste Identification
In the production of urea, there are gaseous wastes produced. All of these wastes need to be
treated to ensure the treated waste enable to comply with the Environmental Quality
(Industrial Effluent) Regulations 2009 and Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations
2014.

Gas Waste
Gas wastes are produced in the production of urea. The unit operations that produced these gas
wastes are medium pressure separator, low pressure separator, evaporator 1 and evaporator 2.
Medium and low pressure separator produced carbon dioxide gas and ammonia gas, whereas
evaporator 1 and 2 produced contaminated water vapour.

Table 1. The mass flowrate of waste produced from the separators.

Component Flowrate (kg/hr)

S14,1
Carbon dioxide gas 1092.30
Ammonia gas 1032.46
S15,1
Carbon dioxide gas 1092.30
Ammonia gas 1032.46
Stream no
Contaminated water vapour 12593
Stream no
Contaminated water vapour

Waste Minimization of System

Waste minimization need to be practice in every industry to reduce the unwanted products
generated by the industrial process. The waste reduction in the industry does not only protect
the environment but provide economic benefits to the industry. Table 3 shows the benefits of
practicing waste minimization in the industry. The wastes generated can be minimize by
referring to the waste management hierarchy. The waste management hierarchy is applied
depending on its practicality and suitability in minimizing the waste.
 Table 2. The benefits of practicing waste minimization.

Benefits Explanation
Enhance production practices Waste minimisation can increase the
production rate of the product.
Economic benefits Purchase cost can be reduce using the
products more efficiently.
Improve products quality Innovative practices can reduce waste and
enhance the quality of the inputs in the
production line.
Environment friendly Reducing waste generation will make it
easier for the industry to meet the
environmental regulation set by the
government.

Table 3. The waste management for the generated wastes.

Unit Waste generated Waste Waste Explanation

operation minimization treatment
Medium  Carbon  Carbon - Carbon dioxide
pressure dioxide dioxide will be vented out
separator gas gas vent from the system,
Low  Ammonia out. whereas ammonia
pressure gas  Ammoni liquid will be
separator a liquid recycle back to the
recycle inlet of the urea
back to reactor since there
the urea is a large amount of
reactor. ammonia liquid.
Hence, recycling
method is the
suitable method to
be used.
Evaporator 1  Water  Water  Sent to The contaminated
&2 vapour vapour wastew water vapour from
 containing will be ater the evaporator will
urea, condens treatme undergo
carbon ate and nt plant condensation
dioxide the (WWT process to convert
and liquid P) it to liquid. The
ammonia will be contaminated liquid
gas. treated. contain 4 wt%
carbon dioxide, 6
wt% ammonia and
1 wt% urea. In
order to comply
with the regulation
set by the
government, the
liquid need to be
treated.

Wastewater Treatment Plant Design

Urea Removal
Adaptations of various methods are done in order to treat wastewater that is discharged from
the chemical process production. Such methods include physical, chemical and biological
treatment. Direct discharge of industrial wastewater to surface water/ and or ground water is
generally prohibited in most of the countries where strict government regulation are
implemented. As such, the discharged wastewater after pretreatment must also comply with
the regulations set by Department of Environment in the respective country, where the its
commonly known as Standard A and Standard B. Through the proposed treatment process it
is expected to have to have reduced the main criteria for discharge limit as set by DOE,
pH,BOD and BOD.

In a urea plant, the largest quantities of waste water are produced in the concentration process
in the evaporators. Other than that, amount of wastewater is large during auxiliary operations
such as the washing process for the prilling towers as well as the pumps transporting to the
solution with the crystal suspension [1]. There exist many methods for removal of chemicals
from wastewater by urea plant, but most are still being developed or new. The common
wastewater method includes hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, decomposition in the
biological bed, decomposition by strong oxidants, and electrochemical oxidation.

Some of the common methods to remove urea in the waste water is shown in Table 1.

Table 4 Comparison between different methods of urea removal [2, 3, 4, 5]

Method of General Principle Process Parameters Decomposition

decomposition of products
urea
Hydrolysis Uses high Temperature(120- Ammonia and
temperature and 236°C), carbon dioxide
pressure pressure(1.7-3.7
Mpa) and residence
time.
Biological treatment Flow through Bacterial strain, Nitrogen or nitrite
biofilters pH(7.0-9.0) ions and carbon
dioxide which is
dependent on the
strain applied
Adsorption Flow through a bed Sorbent(activated N/a
or addition of carbon, zeolites, ion-
absorbent exchange resin or
silica),
Catalytic Addition of catalyst Catalyst (Pt, Al2O3, Nitrate ions,
decomposition TiO2 ), Temperature nitrogen, carbon
(90-150°C) dioxide, ammonia
and possibly NOx
which is dependent
on the catalyst and
conditions.
Among all the methods of urea removal mentioned in Table 1, hydrolysis of urea is a well-
known and successful method for urea removal. During hydrolysis, the aqueous solution that
contains urea and other chemicals comes in contact with high pressure steam. Under such
high temperature and large pressure, the productions of the decomposition (ammonia and
carbon dioxide) are separated. Several variations have been studied to find optimum
temperature, pressures and residences time. Studies found that the urea conversion increases
as the temperature and concentration of urea increases. Although the effective of removal of
urea depends significantly on the given variant method, the best effectiveness is said to be
achieved only by hydrolysis of urea about 94-95% [6]. Other method of decomposition has
disadvantages such as removal of urea by biological methods is preferable for the removal of
ammonia and nitrates than urea as the removal rate is comparatively slower [7]. Due to it’s
high effectiveness and established technology hydrolysis of urea is chosen to decompose urea
for water treatment process.

For the hydrolyser, it is compared with packed bed reactor and fluidized bed reaction as
shown in Table 2.

Table 5 Packed Bed Reactors vs Fluidized Bed Reactor

Type Packed Bed Reactors Fluidized bed reactor

Defintion Paced with solid catalyst Have multiphase chemical
particles reactions
Advantage - Low Operating cost - Uniform particle
- Continuous mixing
operation - Uniform temperature
- High conversion/ gradients
unit catalyst mass - Ability of feeding
new reactions as well
as withdrawal of
products
continuously.
Disadvantages - Formation of - High cost
channelling - Particle entrainment
- Poor control of - Pressure loss
temperature
 - Difficult cleaning - Erosion of internal
operation components

Packed bed reaction is preferable in the water treatment process due to its low operating costs
as well as high conversion and continuous operational ability. Whereas, fluidized bed reactor
is not really required in the process as its mostly used for advanced oxidation process,
biological and adsorption process [8]. Addition it’s high cost due to its high energy and high
pumping pressure is undesirable as the operating cost for the wastewater treatment plant is to
keep as minimum as possible yet yielding a high efficiency. Thus, the suitable hydrolysis
reactor for the reaction is Packed Bed Reactor

Ammonia Removal

In order to discharge the water from the flash drum, an ammonia removal process or technology
needs to be used to ensure the water can safely be discharged to the nearest river. It is also to
ensure the amount of ammonia in the effluent comply with the regulation set by Department of
Environment Malaysia. Table 4 show the comparison of different ammonia removal process.

Table 6. The comparison of different ammonia removal process.

Process Advantage Disadvantage

Membrane separation  High removal of  Regeneration needed
ammonia.  Sensitive to pH and
 Low energy temperature of
consumption. wastewater.
 Small size
 No solid production.
 Convert ammonia
into useful product,
ammonium sulphate.
Biological nitrification to  Able to treat big  Sludge production
nitrate volume of ammonia.
 Cost effective
  Robust system  Need to be
supervised
frequently

Air stripping  Simple process  High maintenance

 The process is not  High consumption of
sensitive to energy
impurities.  Cause air pollution.
 A controlled process.
 No regeneration or
backwash needed.

Membrane separation will be used to separate dissolved ammonia from the wastewater. This
is because of its high efficiency in removing ammonia from the effluent. It is not practical to
use the other two methods as the flowrate of the mixture is small. Using this method, there will
be no sludge produce and this will make it easy for the treated effluent to comply with the
regulations. Also, the process produces ammonium sulphate. Ammonium sulphate is a type of
fertilizer. The company will be able to sell it to local farmers.

Process Description

The water vapour from Evaporator 1 and 2 are contaminated with urea, carbon dioxide and
ammonia. The gas mixture will be fed into a condenser to convert the mixture to liquid. The
liquid mixture will fed into two heat exchangers and flow into a hydrolyser. A steam of 380℃
is fed into the hydrolyser to decompose the urea in the liquid mixture. The urea will decompose
into carbon dioxide and ammonia with the ratio of 1:2 respectively. The outlet of the hydrolyser
contain carbon dioxide, ammonia and water. The new mixture will flow into a desorber, where
steam with the temperature of 145 ℃ is supplied to the system. The steam is used as a stripping
agent to remove carbon dioxide and ammonia from the water. There are two outlet for the
desorber, which are outlet for treated water and outlet for the stripped gases. The treated water
will be released to the nearest river or water source. The stripped gases will flow into a
condenser and a flash drum. After pass through the flash drum, the carbon dioxide will be
separated from the mixture and vent out. As for the ammonia and water mixture, it will undergo
separation process using membrane separation. In the membrane separation, the retentate will
be the water and permeate will be the ammonium sulphate. During the separation process,
sulphuric acid will be used to react with ammonia to obtain another valuable product,
ammonium sulphate, which can be used to make fertilizer.

Basic Equipment Sizing

Hydrolyzer
 Information and assumptions for hydrolyzer

Retention time, 𝜏 72 hours

Volumetric flowrate, 𝑣𝑜 3
470 𝑚 ⁄𝑑

Type of hydrolyzer Cylindrical

Height of hydrolyzer, h 5m

 Calculation to obtain;
1. Volume of hydrolyzer, V
𝑉 = 𝜏 × 𝑣𝑜
= 1290 𝑚3

2. Radius, r and area, A of hydrolyzer

𝑉 = 𝜋𝑟 2 ℎ

1568.61
𝑟= √
4𝜋

= 10.13 m

𝐴 = 2𝜋𝑟ℎ × 2𝜋𝑟 2
= 889 𝑚2

 Hence, below are the information of the basic equipment size for the hydrolyzer.

Volume of hydrolyzer 1290 m3

Radius of hydrolyzer 10.13 m
Area of hydrolyzer 889 m2

Desorber
 Information and assumptions for desorber

Retention time, 𝜏 72 hours

Volumetric flowrate, 𝑣𝑜 3
522.870 𝑚 ⁄𝑑

Type of desorber Cylindrical

Height of desorber, h 6m

 Calculation to obtain;
3. Volume of desorber, V
𝑉 = 𝜏 × 𝑣𝑜
= 1568.61 𝑚3

4. Radius, r and area, A of desorber

𝑉 = 𝜋𝑟 2 ℎ

1568.61
𝑟= √
4𝜋

= 11.17 m

𝐴 = 2𝜋𝑟ℎ × 2𝜋𝑟 2
= 1205.53 𝑚2

 Hence, below are the information of the basic equipment size for the desorber.

Volume of desorber 1568.61 m3

Radius of desorber 11.17 m
Area of desorber 1205.53 m2
Membrane Separation
 Information and assumptions for membrane separator

Retention time, 𝜏 2 hours

Volumetric flowrate, 𝑣𝑜 3
124.38 𝑚 ⁄𝑑

Type of membrane separator Cylindrical

Height of membrane separator, h 1m

 Calculation to obtain;
5. Volume of membrane separator, V
𝑉 = 𝜏 × 𝑣𝑜
= 10.37 𝑚3

6. Radius, r and area, A of membrane separator

𝑉 = 𝜋𝑟 2 ℎ

1568.61
𝑟= √
4𝜋

= 1.28 m

𝐴 = 2𝜋𝑟ℎ × 2𝜋𝑟 2
= 8.44 𝑚2

 Hence, below are the information of the basic equipment size for the membrane
separator.

Volume of membrane separator 10.37 m3

Radius of membrane separator 1.28 m
Area of membrane separator 8.44 m2