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SOURCE ASSESSMENT: NITROGEN FERTILIZER INDUSTRY WATER EFFLUENTS
Citation:
Search, W., J. Klieve, G. Rawlings, J. Nyers, AND R. Reznik. SOURCE ASSESSMENT: NITROGEN FERTILIZER INDUSTRY WATER EFFLUENTS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/2-79/019B.
Description:
The report describes a study of waterborne pollutants from the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers. It includes an evaluation of the ammonia, ammonium nitrate, urea, and nitric acid manufacturing processes. Water effluents in a nitrogen fertilizer plant originate from a variety of point and nonpoint sources. Major components in the effluents are ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, and organic nitrogen. The potential environmental impact of nitrogen fertilizer effluents was evaluated by comparing the concentration of a particular pollutant in a receiving stream as a result of discharge to an acceptable concentration (hazard factor). The ratio of these two values is the source severity. At a mean receiving water flow rate and the average stream pH of 7.6, all severities were below 0.05. Control technologies, available and in use at some nitrogen fertilizer plants, include containment, steam and air stripping, urea hydrolysis, biological treatment, ion exchange, and condensate reuse.