Problem:
How to clean steel mill waste water sufficiently to make it harmless when discharged into rivers and streams
Solution:
The wash water from BOF dust scrubbers contained some 600 parts per million of ferrous particles at the Brackenridge, PA plant of the Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation and at the Lackawanna NY Plant of Bethlehem Steel. Magnetic flocculators were installed on the lines feeding the primary thickeners. The magnetized particles agglomerated into larger flocs that settled much faster, leading to greatly improved discharge water.