Industrial wastewater treatment

Summary

Industrial wastewater treatment describes the processes used for treating wastewater that is produced by industries as an undesirable by-product. After treatment, the treated industrial wastewater (or effluent) may be reused or released to a sanitary sewer or to a surface water in the environment. Some industrial facilities generate wastewater that can be treated in sewage treatment plants. Most industrial processes, such as petroleum refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants have their own specialized facilities to treat their wastewaters so that the pollutant concentrations in the treated wastewater comply with the regulations regarding disposal of wastewaters into sewers or into rivers, lakes or oceans. This applies to industries that generate wastewater with high concentrations of organic matter (e.g. oil and grease), toxic pollutants (e.g. heavy metals, volatile organic compounds) or nutrients such as ammonia. Some industries install a pre-treatment sys

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_wastewater_treatment

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Evaluation of the treatment of wastewater organic pollutants by boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes

Davide Beretta

2012

The general topic of this research project is the modelling of wastewater treatment processes for anaerobic digestion effluents, which are characterized by high nitrogen concentrations. In order to avoid eutrophication of lakes and rivers caused by nutrient enrichment as it happened in Switzerland a few decades ago, the implementation of efficient nitrogen removal processes for those effluents remains nowadays of importance. Moreover nitrogen removal will even become a pre-requisite for efficient micropollutants techniques to be implemented. The first objective of this master project is the modelling of the biological nitrogen removal process Anammox in the software gPROMS. This process converts ammonium and nitrate (close to 1:1 influent concentration ratio) into dinitrogen and nitrate by Anammox bacteria. In order to obtain an influent with the proper concentration ratio, this process can be coupled to a Sharon reactor operated for partial nitrification (two stages operation). In this study, the Anammox biological developed model has been integrated into a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) combined with a particles separator. The two modeled reactors, Sharon and Anammox, have then been run in series and steady-state results have been obtained. Through a comparison with literature results (lab experience and pilot-plant), the steady-state simulation results in terms of nitrogen removal efficiency and effluent concentrations have been considered as reliable. However, a calibration of the model with real data still needs to be investigated. The second objective of the project is the study of key influencing parameters (pH and temperature) on the operation of the two stages Sharon-Anammox process. A sensitivity analysis showed that temperature and pH are influencing the nitrite to ammonium ratio Sharon effluents and consequently affecting the efficiency of the Anammox reactor; the growth and selection of bacteria in the Sharon reactor are determined by those two parameters (chemostat principle). The optimal range of operation for the Sharon reactor in order to maximize the efficiency of the Anammox reactor are found to be between 306K and 308K and between 7.8 and 8.0 for the pH according to the steady-state simulations; those results are coherent with literature findings and operation of full-scale Sharon reactors. The final objective of the project is the comparison of the Sharon-Anammox process with an activated sludge system in terms of energy consumption and nitrogen removal efficiency. By minimizing in both cases the mmonium effluent concentration and playing with the aeration needs, savings of 75% in benefit of the Sharon-Anammox system have been observed; the order of magnitude obtained by optimization is coherent with the stoichiometry implemented in the model. The biological Anammox model itself will be implemented in other types of reactors models (one stage technologies involving biofilms) and the models predictions will be compared with operational data (at pilot or full-scale). Modelling wastewater treatment processes is a help to better understand the processes themselves, their interactions, their optimal operation conditions both by taking into consideration the energy consumption and the water quality through optimization techniques. The challenge of modelling will however still remain the modelling of bacteria interaction and inhibition, as well as a deep understanding and quantification of various mass transfer processes involved. This will need a close collaboration with expert scientists in order to better understand these phenomena. Modelling is a good support for experimental studies, as it can help to plan efficient experimental campaign by minimizing the required experimentations run.

2014

Characterisation of Hospital Wastewater: the Case of the CHUV

Laura Marie Blanc

The aim of this study was to characterize hospital effluents in investigating the CHUV importance as source of pollutants, the range and amounts of pharmaceuticals that are used in the hospital and the need of source treatment of the hospital sewage. The CHUV is the biggest hospital of Lausanne (Switzerland), and 71% of its beds are in a building named “BH” (Hospital Building). The BH treats around 609 patients a day and releases an important volume of water (735 litres per patient per day), potentially highly concentrated in pharmaceuticals. The drugs the most delivered to the BH patients are the analgesic Paracetamol (787 g/day) and two anti-inflammatory substances: Ibuprofen (106 g/day) and Mefenamic acid (78 g/day). Among the 39 analysed pharmaceuticals, the most concentrated in the BH effluents are Paracetamol (423 ng/l) and Ciprofloxacin (22 ng/l). The CHUV effluents plus many other wastes from Lausanne city (homes, other health centres, etc.) are treated in Vidy wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The treated water is then released into Lake Geneva. The load of pharmaceuticals from the CHUV was found to be relatively small, compared to the total load entering in Vidy WWTP. Maximal percentages of the WWTP inputs from the BH effluents were shown by two antibiotics: Ciprofloxacin (2.8%) and Sulfamethoxazole (4.3%). This indicates that many drugs are excreted in domestic wastewater. Although the drug levels in the water from the hospital are low compared to the total levels reaching the WWTP, they still represent a significant point source and wastewater treatment at the hospital or in the WWTP is necessary. But Vidy WWTP was shown to be particularly inefficient in treating some of the pharmaceuticals that entered it. Therefore, the risk for the environment has been assessed. Diclofenac, Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, Propranolol, Ciprofloxacin, Clarithromycin, Sulfamethoxazole and 17α-Ethinylestradiol were from 2 to 601111 times more concentrated in Vidy WWTP effluents than acceptable in terms of calculated risk quotient (RQ) values. So, in some cases, a very important risk for the environment has been demonstrated here. Improvements of the WWTP efficiency are now in progress as a response to this. Treated water leaving Vidy WWTP is further diluted (at least 84.7 times) when it enters Lake Geneva, however this study revealed detectable levels of some pharmaceuticals in the lake itself, albeit below the predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) in all cases measured in this study.

2010

2014

Characterisation of Hospital Wastewater: the Case of the CHUV

Laura Marie Blanc

2010