Pollution Prevention and Control Technologies for Plating Operations

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Section 3 - Chemical Recovery

3.8 MESHPAD MIST ELIMINATORS

3.8.7 Operational and Maintenance Experience

The following summarizes the respondent's O&M experiences and provides operating labor information.

• Seven shops provided operating labor data. For these shops, the average number of annual O&M hours for meshpad mist eliminators were: 116 hrs/yr (for several of the respondents this includes O&M labor for multiple units). The skill requirement most commonly needed for operating this technology is a trained technician. The following is a breakdown of the responses for skill requirements (based on data from seven respondents, some respondents gave multiple responses):

      Environmental Engineer:...............0
      Process/Chemical Engineer:............0
      Chemist:..............................0
      Consultant:...........................1
      Plumber/Pipe Fitter:..................1
      Electrician:..........................1
      Vendor:...............................0
     Senior-Level Plater:...................2
     Junior-Level Plater:...................1
     Trained Technician:....................5
     Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator:...0
     Common Labor:..........................2
     Other:.................................0
      

• In general, meshpad mist eliminator equipment requires little maintenance and has a relatively long equipment life. Most shops indicated that the downtime for this technology was low or non-existent and none identified any major O&M problems. Long equipment life was evidenced by the fact that no shops responding to the survey indicated that they had previously used this process and subsequently discarded it. All of the identified units were in operation at the time of the survey. The oldest systems identified in the survey were purchased in 1971. All other units were purchased within the past five years.
• The following specific O&M problems were reported. PS 021 indicated that their first stage pad partially failed. PS 067 also reported a meshpad failure ("disintegration"). PS 052 reported occasional leaks in the associated ductwork, which they patch themselves. PS 105, which reported the highest O&M labor requirement (250 hrs/yr), indicated that their unit needs daily attention, but that it is minimal.

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