Document ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0121-0018
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2003-08-22T04:00Z

Contact
Report
Date:
June
26,
2002
From:
Brenda
Shine
North
State
Engineering,
Inc.

To:
MON
Project
File
Subject:
Contact
Report
 
Mr.
Bob
Brunsun
Cognis
Corporation
4900
Este
Avenue
Cincinatti,
OH
45232
(
513)
482­
3562
Summary:
On
June
26,
Mr.
Brunson
returned
a
call
I
made
earlier
to
him
regarding
follow
up
information
on
methanol­
containing
wastewater
streams
at
the
facility.
In
the
Section
114
information
request
filled
out
by
the
facility
in
June
of
1997,
two
methanol­
containing
wastewater
streams,
M­
122
and
M­
102
from
esterification
processes,
were
reported
as
being
generated,
managed
and
treated.
I
contacted
the
facility
to
verify
some
information
regarding
this
streams.
My
questions,
and
Mr.
Brunsun's
responses
are
presented
below.

1.
Are
the
processes
generating
these
streams
still
operating?

Yes,
the
operation
is
the
same
as
it
was
in
1997.

2.
Are
any
other
HAP
contained
in
the
wastewater
streams?

No.

3.
Are
the
streams
hardpiped
to
treatment?

Yes,
the
streams
are
hardpiped
to
an
atmospheric
storage
tank(
s)
prior
to
treatment.
Treatment
consists
of
being
combined
with
other
wastewaters
and
routed
to
a
boiler
feed
tank
to
be
fed
to
boilers
as
supplementary
fuel.
The
water/
methanol
tank
is
controlled
by
a
water
scrubber.
The
methanol
concentration
of
the
stream
is
2
to
3%
%
by
weight
upon
discharge
to
the
tank.
Contact
Report
Preceding
the
generation
of
this
wastewater
stream,
the
esterification
process
is
operated
such
that
the
reaction
is
conducted
with
excess
alcohol.
Water
and
excess
alcohol
are
removed
from
the
reactor
and
methanol
is
recovered
by
distillation.
The
incoming
water­
methanol
stream
to
the
distillation
(
recovery)
system
is
approximately
60%
by
weight
methanol.
The
column
is
dedicated
to
this
operation
(
bottoms
from
this
column
are
the
wastewater
streams).

4.
Are
the
processes
used
to
generate
the
wastewaters
batch
processes?
Yes,
the
processes
are
batch.