K050 RCRA waste code Toxic sludge from cleaning refinery heat exchangers.

Free, no account
Based on 40 CFR 261.32 and EPA hazardous-waste rules
Nothing is stored

K-listed waste
Refinery heat-exchanger cleaning sludge

Industry: Petroleum refining.

Toxic K-listed waste from petroleum refineries. Sludge from cleaning heat exchanger bundles, the tube sets that cool refinery streams.

Is K050 hazardous waste?

Yes. K050 is nonacute K-listed hazardous waste when the waste comes from the named process and matches the named stream. The federal table gives it hazard code (T), toxicity.

A K listing depends on where and how the waste was made, not on a test result alone. A test may add a characteristic code, but it doesn't remove the listing.

On a required hazardous waste manifest, put K050 in Item 13. Check the VSQG exemptions and empty-container rules too.

What does K050 cover?

Heat exchanger bundle cleaning sludge from petroleum refining. The 261.4(a)(12)(i) recycling exclusion applies only if the sludge goes back into refining with no land placement or speculative accumulation first. For thermal cracking, the coke must also be nonhazardous.

Hazard code: (T), toxicity
Industry: Petroleum refining
Rule: 40 CFR 261.32

Is refinery heat-exchanger cleaning sludge always K050?

Code	When it fits
K050	Heat exchanger bundle cleaning sludge from the petroleum refining industry.
K048	Dissolved air flotation (DAF) float from the petroleum refining industry.
K051	API separator sludge from the petroleum refining industry.
K052	Tank bottoms (leaded) from the petroleum refining industry.

The industry, production step and waste form tell these K listings apart, not the chemicals in the waste. The rows above are only the nearby listed streams, so also add any characteristic or other listing that fits. One waste can carry more than one federal code.

Which wastes take K050?

Waste	When it’s K050
Petroleum refinery heat-exchanger sludge	It is heat-exchanger bundle cleaning sludge from petroleum refining

Which codes sit beside K050?

Code	What it is
K044	Wastewater sludge from making or processing explosives
K045	Spent carbon from treating explosives wastewater
K046	Wastewater sludge from making or loading lead-based explosive initiators
K047	Pink or red wastewater from TNT operations
K049	Slop-oil emulsion solids from a petroleum refinery
K060	Lime sludge from a coke-plant ammonia still
K061	Electric-furnace dust or sludge from primary steelmaking
K062	Spent acid pickling liquor from iron or steel finishing