Category Archives: Remediation & Recovery

Electric Toxic Recovery

anchor pumping toxic chemicals

New-model Anchor Electric pump boosts hydrocarbon-removal 17% at old MW chemical plant

Blackhawk Technology’s latest-generation Anchor Electric Piston Pump®, installed to remove toxic hydrocarbons at a former industrial chemical-processing plant in the Midwest, has improved flow rates there by more than 17 percent, according to the project manager.

The new Anchor replaces a sturdy, older Blackhawk electric unit that had been serving for more than 10 years at the site. And although pleased with the long-term results of the older pump, the manager decided to upgrade.

New-model Anchor Electric pump boosts hydrocarbon-removal 17% at old MW chemical plant.

V-2 Low-Flow Pneumatic Pump Recovers Tar

Industrial site with machinery and tools. A metal container with hoses and a hydraulic tool, including a top-head drive pump, is in the foreground. A larger tank is situated behind the container, with various pipes and industrial equipment visible in the background.

Aussie steel plant: ‘performed exactly as we hoped’

In 2015, engineers at an Australian steel plant works discovered tar in an environmental-monitoring bore.

As part of the investigation and plan for remediation, the company put in a 2-foot diameter, 12-foot-deep well, topping it with a modified-extended version of Blackhawk’s versatile V-2 Pneumatic Piston Pump™ later in the year.

The engineers decided to link the discharge hose to a skip bin (dumpster), with an overflow hose for ground water return to the well. When filled, the bin is emptied using a vacuum truck. The tar is then taken to the company’s recycling plant.

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Solars vs Submersibles

An overhead view of a large cylindrical metal container housing complex industrial machinery with various components, wires, and tubes. A piece of white paper and a small blue and white tool sit at the bottom, adjacent to a top-head drive pump.

Solars Replace Submersibles to Keep Old Landfill Compliant In New Life as AZ City Park

The Paseo Vista Recreation Area is a big hill covered by boulders encased in sturdy wire and decorated with wildflowers. There’s a good chance the Chandler, Ariz., residents visiting the dog park, archery range and playground don’t know (or remember) that the mound was, for 30 years until 2005, the city landfill.

They certainly don’t see the four Apollo Solar Piston Pumps hidden in caissons and powered by unobtrusive low-rise solar panels behind a ridge, which help keep the closed site EPA compliant.

There’s a good chance the Chandler, Ariz., residents visiting the dog park, archery range and playground don’t know (or remember) that the mound was, for 30 years until 2005, the city landfill.

A Strategy to Tame ETLF Sites

An outdoor setup featuring various pipes, valves, and gauges connected to a gas extraction wellhead with a top-head drive pump. The equipment is installed on a grassy hill with a highway and industrial buildings visible in the background. Colorful hoses are attached to the apparatus.

The ETLF Issue

For the past several years, a growing number of landfill managers have confronted temperatures ranging from 150°F to 250°F or more (65°C to 121°C) from deep inside larger, wetter, maturing sites — not from subsurface fires but from biological or chemical exothermic reactions within zones of the landfill itself.

High concentrations of varied, recombinant leachate compositions in these Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs) can lead to higher costs for treatment or even the refusal of local wastewater treatment plants to accept the leachate, according to a three-part series by Waste 360 in conjunction with ELEF.

Elevated temperatures also may result in slope instability due to reduced waste strength or increased liquid- or gas-pore pressures; surprise sinkholes, and rapid settlement – all safety and infrastructure issues.

In addition, odor and the possibility of offsite gas migration and leachate release have resulted in public demands for tighter operations and oversight and, occasionally, litigation. Research into the causes and spread of ETLFs is ongoing.

For the past several years, a growing number of landfill managers have confronted temperatures ranging from 150°F to 250°F or more (65°C to 121°C) from deep inside larger, wetter, maturing sites — not from subsurface fires but from biological or chemical exothermic reactions within zones of the landfill itself.