Biological Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastewater
The biological wastewater treatment study was performed to treat non-penicillin pharmaceutical wastewater. The study was conducted in two phases. The Phase I focussed on a preliminary study to determine the feasibility of biological treatment for treating pharmaceutical wastewater. The biological...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2009
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/8740/1/2009%20-%20Biological%20Treatment%20of%20Pharmaceutical%20Wastewater.pdf http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/8740/ |
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| Summary: | The biological wastewater treatment study was performed to treat non-penicillin
pharmaceutical wastewater. The study was conducted in two phases. The Phase I
focussed on a preliminary study to determine the feasibility of biological treatment for
treating pharmaceutical wastewater. The biological treatment in Phase I consisted of
two treatment trains; Train I which consisted of a semi-anaerobic baffle reactor
(SABR) followed by an activated sludge process (ASP) reactor while Train 2
consisted of only an ASP reactor. The Phase II was carried out on anaerobic
treatment processes. Anaerobic biological treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater
was performed using upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and hybrid upflow
anaerobic sludge blanket (HUASB) reactors. The UASB and HUASB reactors were
operated under mesophilic (35±2°C) and thermophilic (55±2°C) conditions. Four
hydraulic retention times (HRTs) i.e., five, four, three and two days were applied for
all reactors. The sludge from an aerobic sewage treatment plant was used as seed
biomass in all reactors.
In Phase I, the reactors were fed with influent chemical oxygen demand (COD)
concentration of 607-1953 mg/L. Train I (SABR-ASP reactor) achieved higher COD
removal in treating high strength wastewater (COD 1953 mg/L); however, Train 2
(ASP reactor) achieved higher COD removal in treating low strength wastewater
(COD 635 mg/L). The aerobic biomass from a sewage treatment plant was
successfully used as seed biomass in aerobic and semi-anaerobic reactors in treating
non-penicillin pharmaceutical wastewater.
In Phase II, the reactors were fed with low strength influent (COD 458-526 mg/L) and
high strength influent (COD 1770-2217 mg!L). The reactors obtained higher COD
removals in treating high strength wastewater. The results show that the reactor
performance was significantly affected by type of reactor, HRT and temperature.
Both mesophilic UASB and HUASB reactors obtained higher COD and biochemical
oxygen demand 5 days (BODs) removals in treating pharmaceutical wastewater. The
highest average COD and BODs removals were achieved by the mesophilic HUASB reactor treating high strength pharmaceutical wastewater at HRT of five days (average
OLR 0.43 g CO DIL-day); average COD removal was 90%, average effluent COD was
133 mg!L, average BODs removal was 97% and average effluent BODs was 51 mg!L.
The COD and BODs removals decreased when the HRT was decreased. The
concentration of ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) and total phosphorous (TP) increased
during this study whereas the concentration of nitrate-nitrogen (N03-N) was constant
and the concentration of total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) slightly reduced.
Three kinetic models i.e. Monad, modified Staver-Kincannon and Grau second-order
were applied in this study to determine the kinetics of pharmaceutical wastewater
treatment using UASB and HUASB reactors. The results of kinetic model analysis
indicated that Grau second-order fits well for estimates of kinetic coefficients in all
reactors. High R2 values (R2>0.9) were obtained for a and b determinations for all
reactors. |
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