Integrated emissions management for automotive painting operations*
B. R. Kim, E. M. Kalis, and J. A. Adams
Ford Motor Company, P.O. Box 2053, MD 3083/SRL, Dearborn,
MI 48121, USA
Abstract: An integrated scheme has been studied to reduce gaseous
(volatile organic compounds [VOCs]), liquid (scrubber water), and solid
(paint sludge) emissions from automotive painting operations by converting
an existing spray-booth scrubber system to a bioreactor to capture and
degrade VOCs and pyrolyzing paint sludge to produce an adsorbent. This
paper describes the experimental results of 1) a pilot-scale study conducted
at an assembly plant to evaluate the biological VOC removal using activated-sludge
bioreactors and 2) a bench-scale study on VOC adsorption on paint-sludge
adsorbents. The results indicate that the biological VOC removal is
technically feasible (comparable VOC removal and less energy usage as
compared to the widely used, vapor phase-activated carbon adsorption/thermal
oxidation process) and economically feasible (one order of magnitude
cheaper) and that paint-sludge adsorbents exhibited appreciable adsorption
capacity. Implementation of the scheme requires more than technical
and economical feasibility. The issues to be overcome include the inertia
of past practices, overall systemic thinking, and moving targets (processes
and regulations).
*Lecture presented at the IUPAC CHEMRAWN
XIV Conference on Green Chemistry:Toward Environmentally Benign Processes
and Products, Boulder,Colorado, USA, 9-13 June 2001. Other presentations
are published in this issue, pp.1229 1330.