Abstract
Toxicity reduction is a main criterion in prioritizing industrial wastewater treatment objectives. This paper utilized a comprehensive survey of 41 industrial facilities to characterize their wastewater quality parameters and to assess their wastewater toxicity. The 41 factories were grouped under eleven industrial categories. Microtox relative toxicity test results indicated that industrial wastewater in Kuwait are mostly very toxic to toxic with the exception of farms wastewater which was found to be slightly toxic. The highest ranking toxic wastewaters where found to be metal forming, printing, dairy, slaughterhouses, petrochemical, poultry, food, paper and packaging, beverage, and construction materials industries in order. Among the contributing factors to the toxicity of industrial wastewater are temperature, pH, metals, COD, TOC, NH3, TPH, phenol, and BTEX.
Highlights
Fast paced industrialization and the complexity of the industrial supply chain increases the production of industrial wastewater which contains highly toxic components
Industrial wastewater is one of the major environmental pollution sources among all sources [2], it contains a mixture of chemical compounds, which are used during industrial processing which are not usually degradable using conventional treatment and have adverse impacts on the environmental health [3]-[12]
The heavy metal toxicity depends to a great extent on its chemical speciation and the associated health effects are influenced by the chemical forms of exposure [18]
Summary
Fast paced industrialization and the complexity of the industrial supply chain increases the production of industrial wastewater which contains highly toxic components. Industrial wastewater is one of the major environmental pollution sources among all sources [2], it contains a mixture of chemical compounds, which are used during industrial processing which are not usually degradable using conventional treatment and have adverse impacts on the environmental health [3]-[12]. Due to advances in analytical chemistry, increasingly more pollutants can be identified and quantified at very low concentrations [13]. This routine chemical analyses do not take into account the toxic effects of wastewater [1]. This paper investigates the common pollutants found in eleven industrial categories in Kuwait and their corresponding toxicity This knowledge is important to further the abatement and management of the negative impacts of industrial wastewater [23]
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