Case Study: Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
Problem
Military/Naval Aircraft Carriers & Battleships are decommissioned dockside at the
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. On the ships are large volumes of petroleumimpacted water in the bilge & ballast sections. This water must be treated prior
to discharge or hauled away for treatment off-site. In this case, the shipyard was
treating the water off-site or ex-situ at $0.25 per gallon, plus transportation and
handling.
Solution
The MYCELX HRM system was installed and removes petroleum and metals
from off-loaded/dock-side bilge & ballast water at 220 gpm. The system consists
of an automated gravity oil-water separator (OWS), particle filtration, (2)
MYCELX MX-22 HRM Cartridge units in series, and a 20,000 gallon hold tank
(Fig. x). The operators monitor breakthrough of the primary MYCELX unit by
sampling and checking for odor & sheen. Upon breakthrough, the primary
MYCELX cartridges are replaced with the downstream (secondary) cartridges,
and fresh cartridges are added to the secondary MYCELX unit. This operating
procedure virtually guarantees performance & eliminates any contamination in
the hold tank. The treated water is discharge to the sanitary sewer system after
passing standards set by the city.
Results
As designed, it will cost about $0.02 per gallon after the OWS to purify the
bilge/ballast water. Our Government should save roughly $200,000 for every
1,000,000 gallons they treat with the MYCELX system versus having the
contaminated water hauled away.