I Need to make something for my business

[VoidChoice]

Hi,

Im starting a business screen printing which produces toxic waste. The place i am moving into doesn't have much plumbing just a sink, but that doesnt matter because i cant tip my waste down the drain.

Part of the process is cleaning equipment with a high pressure washer. Initially I just was going to make a simple wash out booth and store a drum underneath it, let it fill with water and dispose of it. This isn't a great idea if you consider how quickly one of them would fill up.

So, i have a better idea and would like some views on its feasablility.
Heres a step by step of what i want to happen,

1. I use the pressure washer in a wash out booth
2. The water runs down the "plug hole" in the booth through a filter.
3. The bad stuff would go into a waste storage drum.
4. The good stuff (i know it wont be perfect) through a pump to get it back to mains pressure required by the washer
5. back to the pressure washer and around again.

I presume i could get some kind of gadget which would release more mains water into the system if there was not enough coming back through.

My biggest worry is that i need a really good filter because i cant have ink coming through and into the pressure washer.

So what do you experts think? Maybe you could list the things i would need to make this? Do i need a professional plumber? How much are they likely to charge for something like this?

Im also on a very tight budget.

Thanks for any advice
VC

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please note 9

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Do i need a professional plumber?

Sounds like a specialist job to me and not something to be tackled on a tight budget BUT you havent mentioned much about the nature of the toxic waste or the quantities you expect to produce. Try searching the net on industrial filtration and other groovy search words and see what pops ups

Could you ask other screen printers to see what sort of set ups they have? They may be better placed to advise you initially on this sort of thing.

Nearest I have done to this is fitting x ray developing machines for dentists but the machines and instructions were placed before me and I was then able to just follow the instruction book.

Make sure you do the job right as there can be great fines for discharging certain contaminants into the drains

 

[VoidChoice]

Do i need a professional plumber?

Make sure you do the job right as there can be great fines for discharging certain contaminants into the drains

The idea is that it wont go to the drain, all waste would be collected in a container ready for correct disposal.

The stuff is not highly toxic but from what i can tell, your not even allowed to put white spirits down the drain which is of a similar nature to the chemicals i would use.

Thanks for your advice

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Surely the 'good stuff' as you put it would become more and more contaminated and need dumping anyway.
The contaminant should be filtered or separated in some way during this recycling process. Need to know more about the contaminant and its properties such as solubility in water, density, toxicity and chemical stability and composition. Even then you may still need the services of a chemical engineer to create a suitable device. There may be a chemical you could add to make the substance emulsify, solidify or simply neutralise it
White spirit I would say would be easy, it either floats or sinks [not sure of its density], is not very soluble and so can be separated and be disposed of or recycled.
Water regs state that you should take steps to prevent waste and mis-use of water so what i said earlier about seeing what equipment others have is my best advice on the matter

 

[breezer]

i agree with the slugbabydotcom, this being a diy forum you need specialist advise, i also think its not just a case of a filter that is required, i have seen similar at a carwash, they too had more than "just a filter"

 

[B.O.B DOLE]

Here we go i can see the local fish glowing in the dark again

 

[PTH]

You may be able to use a centrifugal filter. Printing ink is strange stuff, thixotropic, in fact which means that it behaves differently to water when you try to pump it. It has a very high shear stress so centrifugal pumps will tend to spin without actually moving much fluid; pumps for printing inks need to be of positive displacement type - gear, piston, lobe, vane, diaphragm or peristaltic types are usual.
This characteristic can be used to advantage in filtration - the water tends to be flung to the outside of the filter chamber with the ink discharged from the centre port.
Have a look on the web for vortex or centrifugal filters.

As for cleaning equipment you could look at parts washers (Machine Mart etc.) I have one which was designed for toluene but I use paraffin or diesel in it - Its basically a steel sink with a mesh shelf mounted onto a drum with a submersed pump discharging through nozzle over the sink. No filter, other than a gauze but you could probably adapt one of these things for you needs.

 

[Nige F]

For chemical/Lab waste systems ...durapipe.co.uk/home.asp see Vulcathene..."Live long and Prosper"