Biotreatment of industrial effluents

Biotreatment of

Industrial Effluents

Biotreatment of

Industrial Effluents

Mukesh Doble

Department of Biotechnology

I.I.T. Madras, Chennai,

India

and

Anil Kumar

Department of Chemistry

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning

(Deemed University)

Puttaparthi, Ananthapur District, Andhrapradesh,

India

AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON

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Elsevier Butterworth–Heinemann

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Printed in the United States of America

05 06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my parents

M.D.

To Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

A.K.

Contents

Foreword ix

Preface xi

1. Introduction 1

2. Environmental Disasters 11

3. Aerobic and Anaerobic Bioreactors 19

4. Mathematical Models 39

5. Treatment of Waste from Organic Chemical Industries 55

6. Chlorinated Hydrocarbons and Aromatics, and Dioxins 65

7. Fluoride Removal 83

8. Biodegradation of Pesticides 89

9. Degradation of Polymers 101

10. Degradation of Dyes 111

11. Textile Effluent 123

12. Tannery Effluent 133

13. Treatment of Waste from Metal Processing and

Electrochemical Industries 145

14. Semiconductor Waste Treatment 157

vii

viii Contents

15. Waste from Nuclear Plants 169

16. Cyanide Waste 177

17. Treatment of Waste from Food and Dairy Industries 183

18. Sugar and Distillery Waste 189

19. Paper and Pulp 197

20. Paint Industries 209

21. Pharmaceuticals 217

22. Hospital Waste Treatment 225

23. Treatment of Waste from Explosives Industries 233

24. Petroleum Hydrocarbon Pollution 241

25. Biodesulfurization 255

26. Treatment of Solid Waste 267

27. Treatment of Municipal Waste 275

28. Groundwater Decontamination and Treatment 285

29. Denitrification 295

30. Gaseous Pollutants and Volatile Organics 301

Index 313

Foreword

Industrialization has led to growth of manufacturing industries and the

associated waste generated by them. Although green technologies that are

devoid of waste would be the ideal solution, it is certain that industries will

continue to generate effluent well into the foreseeable future. Environmen￾tal activism, stricter legislation, and improved awareness of environmental

issues on the part of industries have collectively led to a serious effort to iden￾tify best solutions to the problem of waste management. Biochemical means

of effluent treatment provide an attractive option that makes use of mild

biological conditions for the treatment of the waste and does not produce

new effluents. Moreover, identification of new microbial systems, includ￾ing extremophiles, has opened up new possibilities for such treatment, and

concerted efforts are being made in industries, academic institutions, and

research labs in the areas of bioremediation and biodegradation of waste.

This book covers the treatment of effluents from manufacturing indus￾tries as diverse as chemical and electronic. It also looks at other complex

wastes such as hospital waste. Comparisons are drawn between current

chemical methods and biochemical methods of treatment, including their

economics. Several of the biotreatment techniques are still in the infant stage

and need sustained research and development before they will be accepted as

viable technology options. The book also discusses succinctly the synergies

between various effluent treatment techniques, a particularly useful contri￾bution. I compliment the authors for the efforts they have made to bring out

this timely publication.

Dr Pushpito Ghosh

Director, Central Salt and Marine Research Institute

Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India

ix

Preface

As industrialization progressed rapidly in the Western world in the 20th cen￾tury, chemical, petrochemical, iron, and steel industries mushroomed at a

tremendous pace. The solid, liquid, and gaseous waste generated from these

industries was disposed in public places with very little thought given to its

treatment and detoxification. Local and federal governments were interested

in the economic progress such industries were bringing to their community

and were not aware of their short-term and long-term effects on the ecology

or on the health of the general public. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, evi￾dence mounted that waste that had been dumped affected the environment

and public health. In response, industries started treating their effluent, using

physical and chemical methods, before discharging it. Governments also laid

down standards for the quality of waste leaving an industry (U.S Environmen￾tal Protection Agency guidelines are found in the http://www.epa.gov/ web

site). As the electronics and communication industries grew rapidly during

the 1970s and 1980s, highly toxic waste of a different kind was produced

and had to be disposed of. Metal recovery and leather processing industries

generated effluents with high concentrations of heavy metals and cyanides.

Industries in the West tried to shift their manufacturing base to underde￾veloped countries to avoid government regulations, but that was only a

short-term solution, because newer laws made manufacturers responsible

irrespective of the location of the manufacturing site. Although the physical

and chemical methods detoxified the waste, they created waste of a different

kind that also had to be disposed of in public places without causing dam￾age. Hence industries started adapting to biochemical treatment techniques

since they were mild and natural, and did not themselves generate waste.

Regulatory requirements have become stringent, and pressure from cit￾izen groups to improve the safety of waste that is being disposed of has

also increased, forcing manufacturing industries to spend more resources on

newer effluent treatment procedures. In addition, sites that had been con￾taminated at the beginning of the industrialization era have to be cleaned as

well due to pressure from local residents.

xi

xii Preface

Biochemical treatment, although offering several potential advantages,

cannot be used for treating all types of industrial effluents because many

of these treatment techniques are still in the research stage. Most of the

microorganisms are very specific to a particular pollutant, whereas a typical

effluent is a mixture of several pollutants and toxic chemicals. Hence a com￾bination of chemical/physical treatment followed by biochemical treatment

methods appears to be the best alternative today. There is plenty of scope

for scientists and engineers to undertake research both in the laboratory and

during technology development. Only a very small percentage of microor￾ganisms and bacteria have been tested, and there are still large amounts of

untapped organisms both in the land and in the ocean that could help in

degrading many of the recalcitrant wastes.

In the meantime, industries are carrying out research to recycle waste

streams and solvents in order to minimize the effluents that leave their

premises and achieve “zero discharge.” Also, new process technologies are

being developed with an eye to the concept of “atom efficiency”; namely,

developing processes in which the raw materials are completely converted

to the desired product without the formation of side or wasteful products.

The figure on the following page sums up the changes that have been taking

place both in manufacturing and in the field of effluent treatment during

the past fifty years. Industries have realized that minimizing and eliminat￾ing waste at its source is more effective than generating it and treating it

later. In the future, a combination of newer manufacturing and treatment

strategies will be the most effective and the least expensive. These newer

manufacturing strategies may include reducing the amount of solvent used,

recycling and recovery of solvents, optimum operating conditions to avoid

formation of side products and degraded products, and the use of chemicals

which are known to biodegrade.

The book covers treatment of most of the effluents from manufactur￾ing industries. Interestingly, industries that appear to be unrelated produce

effluents that are similar in nature. Simple aerobic activated sludge process

is used as a last step in most of the industrial units, since the unit is easy to

construct, maintain, and operate. Although several new bioreactor designs

are undergoing laboratory testing, full-scale technologies are slow to develop.

As will be shown in this book, the knowledge gained by treating effluents

from one industry has been extended to treat effluents from other industries.

At times mixing of effluents may have a beneficial effect, but at the same

time segregating and treating effluents may be easier. A colony of micro￾organisms brings in synergy, which is absent when single organisms are

used for treatment.

As I was teaching a course on Environmental Biotechnology to the

students in the class of 2005 at B. Tech. Industrial Center for Biotechnology,

Anna University, Chennai, India, I realized that there was no single source

that focused on biochemical treatment of all types of industrial effluents.

I undertook the writing of this book in response to that need, and I would

Preface xiii

Manufacturing

strategies

Effluent treatment

strategies

Waste

Government

pressure

Rapid industrialization

(organic & petro￾chemicals, pharma, iron

& steel)

Emergence of new industries

(electronic, computers,

leather, metal)

Zero

discharge

Atom

balance

Total replacement

of chemicals with

microbes/enzymes/

natural resources

Indiscriminate

dumping of

untreated

waste

Chemical

treatment of

waste

Combined

chemical and

biochemical

treatment of

waste

Complete

biochemical

treatment of

waste

Future

Future

Replace a few chemical

steps with microbes during

manufacturing

xiv Preface

like to thank my students for sowing the seeds in my mind to take on such

a venture. This book can be used for the upper-level undergraduate as well

as graduate level courses. It is also well suited as a first point of reference for

practicing environmental engineers and researchers. Practitioners of envi￾ronmental biotechnology come from a wide variety of disciplines, including

agronomists, biochemists, microbiologists, botanists, chemical engineers,

geneticists, enzymologists, molecular biologists, protein technologists, pro￾cess chemists, and technologists. I hope this book has useful and relevant

information for all of them.

Mukesh Doble August 2004