FEASIBILITY OF APPLICATION OF HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRONS FOR SHIPBOARD WASTEWATER TREATMENT

The treatment of wastewater on board ships is a necessity now and will be in the future. Present and pending federal statutes with regard to water pollution will make more effective wastewater treatment plants an integral part of shipboard equipment. There are existing methods of wastewater treatment which are adequate, but more advanced concepts are now within reach which can provide advantages over conventional systems in terms of complexity, space, weight, and power. The topic of this study is one of these advanced concepts, the use of high voltage ionizing electrons for the treatment of wastewater on board ship. This study examines the requirements for such a system, the constraints imposed by the U.S. Navy in its Research and Development program, and the applicable environmental statutes. Possible alternatives for solving the problem are briefly described, and these conventional systems are compared with the high voltage electon system to appraise advantages and disadvantages of the various systems. The high voltage electron system treatment process is described and explained. The parameters of interest are delineated, and peripheral reguirements for such a system noted. As work in this field is continuing, especially at the High Voltage Research Laboratory of M.I.T., current developments are elaborated upon in the study. Finally, the high voltage electron treatment process is examined in terms of application to the 200 man wastewater treatment requirement of the U.S. Navy. Using the Navy requirments, preliminary estimates of the parameters of such a system are synthesized on paper. Ship implications, including space, weight, power, shielding, cost, maintenance, manning, reliability, and modularity, are discussed. Areas of technical risk are noted, topics for further investigation discribed, and ramifications in other fields are briefly presented.

• Corporate Authors:

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Department of Ocean Engineering, 77 Massachusetts Avenue
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02139
• Authors:
  • Bebar, M R
• Publication Date: 1973-9

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Sewage treatment; Ships; Wastewater; Water pollution
• Uncontrolled Terms: Waste treatment
• Old TRIS Terms: Sewage treatment systems; Shipboard sewage treatment; Water pollution (Sewage)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00051868
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Report/Paper Numbers: MS Thesis
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 25 1974 12:00AM