Evaluation of the Performance of Wastewater Treatment Plant at Steel Mill Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how well Steel Mill Karachi's wastewater treatment system works. Wastewater treatment facilities employ the activated sludge technique. Several influent and effluent locations allowed for the collection of influent and effluent samples. A number of physicochemical parameters, such as total dissolved solids (TDS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), electric conductivity (EC), pH, and other metals, such as potassium (K), iron (Fe), sulphate (SO4-2), calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), zinc (Zn), and magnesium (Mg), were measured in order to evaluate the effectiveness of wastewater treatment plants. In a lab environment, the sample's analysis findings were compared to Sindh Environmental Quality Standards (SEQS) for Pakistan. EC, BOD5, COD, SO4-2, Ca, Mg, Na, K, TDS, TSS, EC, BOD5, COD, SO4-2, Ca, Mg, Na, K, Fe, and Zn were removed to different degrees: 42.93%, 60.33%, 43.63%, 51.53%, 40.5%, 35.56%, 26.33%, 22.12%, 34.09%, 20.75%, 55.87%, 22.12%, and 76.10%. Only two metrics, the COD and Zn concentrations, were over the SEQS limits, keeping other effluent results parameters within the limits. Additionally, it is advised that proper maintenance be carried out to increase the effectiveness of wastewater treatment plants.