Paper Industry Wastewater Research Articles

A review on photocatalytic hydrogen production potential from paper and pulp industry wastewater

A review on photocatalytic hydrogen production potential from paper and pulp industry wastewater

Reduction of chlorophenol compounds from pulp and paper industry wastewater using different metal electrodes: a comparative study

In this study, the electrocoagulation (EC) process has been used for the eliminations of the chlorophenol compounds from the pulp and paper industry (PPI) wastewater. Two different metals electrodes (SS-304 and SS-316) have been used during the treatment process. All the experiments were carried out under ideal treatment conditions at pH=7, time =40 min and dose of electrolyte =1.0 gm/l and current density 24.8 mA/cm2 and 25.6 mA/cm2 in case of SS-304 and SS-316 electrodes respectively. The overall removal of chlorophenols is quite high in the case of SS-304 (79.5) electrodes in comparison to SS-316 (78.5). However, the reduction of total organic carbon (TOC) was also observed in the same manner with both metal electrodes. This study explores that the EC process is promising by the use of SS-304 and SS- 316 for the elimination of chlorophenols from PPI wastewater.

Genotoxicity evaluation of paper industry wastewater prior and post-treatment with laccase producing Pseudomonas putida MTCC 7525

Paper industry wastewater is considered a severe polluter of the environment because it contains various toxic pollutants that critically impact the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The current study aimed to assess the bioremediation perspective of Pseudomonas putida strain to eliminate the hazardous pollutants of paper industry wastewater. The physico-chemical analysis of the treated wastewater showed that the Pseudomonas putida MTCC 7525, which secreted laccase enzyme, significantly reduced the pollution parameters such as EC, TDS, COD, phenols, TKN, TOC, lignin and color by 69, 87, 68, 97, 75, 85, 57 and 72%, respectively in comparison to the control. The organic pollutants in the wastewater samples were characterized and identified by GC-MS and FTIR analysis, which also showed that most of the toxic compounds were reduced following the bacterial treatment. The toxicity assessment of the wastewater was performed in terms of cyto-genotoxicity and phytotoxicity assay using onion and mung bean plants. The result of the toxicity study demonstrated that the toxic effect of the wastewater samples declined after the bacterial treatment. These results showed that Pseudomonas putida MTCC 7525 could be used effectively in the paper industry for bioremediation applications, thus minimizing the undesirable effects on the environment.

IoT Online Monitoring System on Pulp and Paper Industry Wastewater Treatment Plant

As one of the largest wastewater producers in the world, the pulp and paper industry need to monitor the waste that they generated. To carry out this monitoring process, the majority of the pulp and paper industry still uses conventional offline methods to measure parameters in their wastewater treatment plants. The monitoring procedure is carried out by taking samples from the factory wastewater treatment plant and testing these samples in the laboratory. This procedure is very prone to errors caused by human. This method also cannot detect any violation, problem, or disturbance of the wastewater parameters in real time. In addition, in 2018, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry issued a regulation requiring the pulp and paper industry to use a real-time online monitoring system for its wastewater treatment plant.
 This paper presents an implementation of the system. There are several parameters that must be measured, two of them are pH and TSS (Total Suspended Solids). To measure these parameters, the regulation states that the online measurement system is carried out using the relevant electric probe sensor. Then the measurement results are displayed online on a specified platform hence that users can observe the results. This implementation uses a pH sensor to measure pH and a conductivity sensor to measure TSS. A conductivity sensor is used as a substitute due to the high cost of TSS sensor. This article analyses also the accuracy of the measurement.

Synthesis and characterization of ZIF-8-based PVDF mixed matrix membranes and application to treat pulp and paper industry wastewater using a membrane bioreactor

The metal–organic framework (MOF) zinc imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) is synthesized by a solvothermal method and added into a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane to study its pollutant removal performance using pulp and paper industry wastewater.

Co-pyrolysis based activated Bio-char: Characterization and its utilization for secondary treated pulp and paper industry wastewater

In this study, the solid residue (bio-char) produced from co-pyrolysis of municipal sewage sludge (MSS)-sugarcane bagasse (SCB) was activated through a chemical activation method using phosphoric acid. The resulting activated bio-char was utilized for the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and colour of pulp and paper industry wastewater obtained from conventional secondary treatment process to explore the recycling potential in the pulp and paper manufacturing process itself. In contrast to bio-char, activated bio-char showed higher surface area (50 times), total pore volume (10 times) and lower average diameter (5 times). Honeycomb shape in SEM image and existence of functional groups in FTIR spectra attributed to such a significant improvement. Results of adsorption experiments revealed that COD and colour was reduced by 84.61% and 98.03%, respectively at an optimized 3 pH with activated bio-char doses of 0.14 g/L in 20 h. Moreover, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm model was observed best suited to obtained equilibrium.

COD removal, decolorization, and energy consumption of electrocoagulation as a wastewater treatment process

The efficiency of color and COD removal in wastewater treatment is one of the essential factors. High color removal can encourage the reuse of wastewater as raw material in the recycled paper industry. Electrocoagulation (EC) process is effective pollutant removal in wastewater due to the adsorption, coagulation, and flotation. In this study, recycled paper industrial wastewater was used; this type of waste has a high content of disturbing pollutants, and treatment with electrocoagulation has not been widely carried out for this type of waste. EC treatment has a relatively high level of effectiveness to remove these pollutants; the influential factors studied include initial pH, applied current, supporting electrolyte, and processing time on a laboratory scale. The degradation of color, COD, and energy used was also evaluated. The best color removal was obtained as 100% at 80 minutes of process, and a COD concentration is 147 mg/L, and the energy used is 13.56 kWh/L.

Recalcitrant pollutants removal from paper mill wastewater by ferrous ion- and heat- activated persulfate oxidation processes using response surface methodology: a comparison study

ABSTRACT In this study, the removal of UV254, phenol, and calcium from paper industry wastewater by persulfate oxidation was investigated. Fe2+ addition and heat application methods were used for persulfate activation. Response surface methodology and central composite design were applied for the optimization of effective parameters on processes. The statistical fit of the model was confirmed by the high R2 and adjusted R2 values. Based on the results obtained, response surface methodology models were developed. Estimated results calculated with model equations and experimental data were close to each other, and the models were confirmed to be significant. As a result of experimental studies conducted under the optimum conditions determined by the model, UV254, phenol, and calcium removal efficiencies from paper industry wastewater were 84.2%, 92.6%, and 85.7%, respectively by the Fe2+-activated persulfate process while they were 96.4%, 96.3%, and 81.8%, respectively by heat-activated persulfate process. The results of the study showed that persulfate oxidation is an effective advanced treatment process for recalcitrant pollutants removal from paper industry wastewater and response surface methodology is a useful tool for optimizing the treatment parameters.

Effects of nickle, nickle-cobalt and nickle-cobalt-phosphorus nanocatalysts for enhancing biohydrogen production in microbial electrolysis cells using paper industry wastewater

Paper industries are water-intensive industries that produce large amount of wastewater containing dyes, toxicity and high nutrient content. These industries require sustainable technology for their waste disposal and MEC could be one of them. However, effective MEC operation at neutral pH and ambient temperature requires economical and efficient cathodes that are capable to treat indusial wastewater along with recovery of energy/biohydrogen. Co-deposits of Nickel, Nickel–Cobalt and Nickel–Cobalt–Phosphorous on the surface of SS and Cu base metals distinctly were used as cathodes in MEC for the concurrent treatment of real paper industry wastewater and biohydrogen production. MECs were utilized in batch mode at neutral pH, applied voltage of 0.6 V and 30 ± 2 °C temperature with paper industry wastewater and activated sludge as microbial sources. The fabricated Nickel–Cobalt–Phosphorous gives the higher hydrogen production rate of 0.16 ± 0.002 m3(H2) m−3d−1 and 0.14 ± 0.002 m3(H2) m −3d −1 respectively, with ~33–42 % treatment efficiency for a 500 ml wastewater in 7-day batch cycle in both the cases; while it is lowest in the case of the control cathodes (SS1 (0.07 ± 0.002 m3(H2) m−3d−1) & Cu1 (0.06 ± 0.004 m3(H2) m−3d−1)). It was also found that fabricated cathodes have the capability to treat industrial wastewater at ambient conditions efficiently with higher energy recovery. Prepared cathodes show enhanced hydrogen production and treatment efficiency as well as are competitive to some reported literature.

Organic and nutrient removal from pulp and paper industry wastewater by extended aeration activated sludge system

Pulp and paper industries are critical to a country’s economic growth. The type of raw material used and the pulping process determine the quality and quantity of wastewater generated. However, the generated wastewater with a dark colour comprises a high concentration of suspended solids, organic content, chemical oxygen demand (COD), volatile organic compounds, and a variety of other impurities. Therefore, in this study, a bench scale activated sludge treatment system was set up using a reactor consisting of an aeration tank with 5000 mg/L initial biomass and a clarifier chamber for the biomass to settle. The reactor was run few weeks with real domestic wastewater as the influent for 3 weeks to acclimatize the sludge inside the reactor. The reactor was then fed with the influent mixture of 20% industrial pulp wastewater and 80% domestic wastewater. Organic and nutrient parameter concentrations are tested from the influent and effluent sample throughout the study duration and recorded for data analysis. The removal of COD and TSS are at 83% and 90% respectively while the averaged BOD value of the treated wastewater is at 74.6%. The conclusion of this project is that the bench scale EAAS is able to treat BOD and TSS according to standard. However, a modification may be required to increase the efficiency of removing COD to meet the requirement standards. This modification could be either by using a biocarrier or an activated carbon to further enhance the treatment efficiency even at higher wastewater concentration.

Valorization of pulp and paper industry wastewater using sludge enriched with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria (NFB) can reduce nitrogen at ambient pressure and temperature. In this study, we treated effluent from a paper mill in sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) and monitored the abundance and activity of NFB with a view to producing a sludge that could work as a biofertilizer. Four reactors were inoculated with activated sludge enriched with NFB and fed with a high C/N waste (100:0.5) from a paper mill. Though the reactors were able to reduce the organic load of the wastewater by up to 89%, they did not have any nitrogen-fixing activity and showed a decrease in the putative number of NFB (quantified with qPCR). The most abundant species in the reactors treating high C/N paper mill wastewater was identified by Illumina MiSeq 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing as Methyloversatilis sp. (relative abundance of 4.4%). Nitrogen fixation was observed when the C/N ratio was increased by adding sucrose. We suspect that real-world biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) will only occur where there is a C/N ratio ≤100:0.07. Consequently, operators should actively avoid adding or allowing nitrogen in the waste streams if they wish to valorize their sludge and reduce running costs. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Efficient biological wastewater treatment of low nitrogen paper mill effluent was achieved without nutrient supplementation. The sludge was still capable of fixing nitrogen although this process was not observed in the wastewater treatment system. This high C/N wastewater treatment technology could be used with effluents from cassava flour, olive oil, wine and dairy industries.

Bioaugmentation with existing potent microorganisms to accelerate the treatment efficacy of paper industry wastewater pollutants

Effluent discharged from paper industries has an unfavourable impact on all the biotic and abiotic components of the environment due to the presence of various bio-recalcitrant toxic compounds. Multiple physico-chemical treatment systems have been adopted over the last two decades for the elimination of refractory organics from paper industry effluent but with limited success. Augmentation of biological treatment through metabolic and cometabolic strategies seems to be a promising and sustainable option. This article aims at presenting a comprehensive account of treating the paper industry effluent with existing treatment strategy using potent green agents through bioaugmentation and mineralization of chlorophenols via ortho- and meta- pathways. Sequential treatment based on consortia of specialized microorganisms remove > 90% of different toxic and recalcitrant compounds present in paper industry effluent. The rapid technological development in microbial fuel cells holds the potential for simultaneous paper industry effluent treatment and energy production.

Fenton and photo-Fenton processes integrated with submerged ultrafiltration for the treatment of pulp and paper industry wastewater

Excessive amounts of wastewater produced by the paper industry, often containing a wide range of toxic and recalcitrant pollutants based on raw materials used, should be subjected to efficient treatment processes before discharging to the environment. This experimental work examined hybrid Fenton and photo-Fenton enhanced (UVC254 and UVA365) UF system performances in treating raw wastewater from pulp and paper industry by membrane oxidation reactor (MOR). By response surface analyses of Taguchi experimental design, the systems were compared onto hybrid efficiencies, in settings optimized for maximal responses with minimum chemical needs, regarding the performance metrics of TOC and COD removal efficiencies and UF water flux. Organics were removed slightly better than Fenton in both photo-Fenton, and H2O2 and Fe2+ spends per TOC were accomplished as more efficient than anticipated in every MOR system. Optimal TOC-COD removals were found as 64.0–74.9% by 85.2 L/m2h at Fenton system, and as 66.5–76.1% by 138.1 L/m2h at UVA-Fenton, while 69.7–82.1% by 90.0 L/m2h at UVC-Fenton with the lowest chemical spending. Hybrid MORs studied were at desirable operational costs of 2.11, 4.15 and 3.13 $/kg removed COD in Fenton, UVA-Fenton and UVC-Fenton systems, respectively, corresponding to the demineralisation costs of 0.0075–0.0143 $/g TOC removed. This study revealed that by synergistic MOR performances, effluents, after pH adjustment, are directly dischargeable in sewage infrastructure ending with complete treatment. In a near future, such innovative approaches towards industrial wastewater treatments, at less resource demands, will unambiguously gain importance, as pressures to reuse wastewater increase and discharge limits become stricter.

Integrating phytoremediation into treatment of pulp and paper industry wastewater: Field observations of native plants for the detoxification of metals and their potential as part of a multidisciplinary strategy

This work aimed to explore the use of native herbs for the removal of heavy metals from pulp and paper industry wastewater, with the view of applying them as part of a multidisciplinary approach for detoxification. Results showed that after in-situ phytoremediation by the native herbs, the heavy metal, and metalloid contents in the wastewater were reduced by almost 60%. Heavy metal analysis of the plant tissues revealed that Fe accumulation was highest in all the tested plants. In general, the bioconcentration factor (BCF) was higher than one (>1) for all the metals except for Cd, suggesting most of the metals were concentrated in the plant tissues. In particular, As was concentrated significantly in Momordica doica and Cannabis sativa with elevated BCF of 269.46 and 131.20, respectively. High translocation factor (>1) was observed in P. hysterophorus and Tribulus terrestris for Cr (5.63) and Cd (7.53), respectively. Results showed most of the native plants examined in this study had hyperaccumulating tendency. Transmission electron microscope analysis of plant root tissues showed abundant metal depositions in the root cell wall, cytoplasm, and vacuole as strong evidence of the in-situ phytoremediation capability of these plants. Antioxidants activities of the plants such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, hydrogen peroxidase, peroxidase, and ascorbate peroxidase production were also noted to be higher than the control. These results support the use of native plants as a novel green process that can be integrated into the multidisciplinary treatment of hazardous industrial wastewater in the polluted sites.

Removal of colour and lignin from paper mill wastewater using activated carbon from plastic mix waste

The study aimed at the use of char produced during pyrolysis of mix plastic waste. It further focused on producing activated carbon from char and also found its efficacy as efficient adsorbent for treatment of pulp and paper mill wastewater. The activated carbon was characterized in comparison with raw char for their physical, surface and adsorptive properties. Batch type adsorption experiments were carried out using 100 ml wastewater to observe the individual effectiveness using five different variables such as adsorbent dose (0.25–2.0 g), pH (6–10), time (5–24 h), agitation speed (100–200 rpm) and temperature (30–50 °C) by keeping other variables constant which helped to find out the effective range of all the variables. The competency was evaluated on the basis of colour and lignin content of pulp and paper industry wastewater. Once the effective range of different variables was identified, the statistical analysis was conducted to monitor the mutual impact on the reduction in colour and lignin contents in wastewater. From the statistical design applied, the best result was obtained at activated carbon dose (1.25 g), pH (8.0), contact time (7 h), agitation speed (184 rpm) and temperature (40 °C). The study resulted in reduction of 96.48% in colour and 94.25% in lignin at optimized condition in comparison with 87.37 and 80.44%, respectively, at unoptimized conditions. A potential increase in reduction of 9.0% in colour and 14.0% in lignin content was achieved after optimization through statistical design that confirmed its usefulness.

Application of novel hybrid deep leaning model for cleaner production in a paper industrial wastewater treatment system

Developing monitoring system for paper industrial wastewater treatment system is an important route for wastewater reuse and recycling from wastewater, which are regarded as effective way for cleaner production. A novel hybrid deep leaning CLSTMA model, which based on sequential fusion convolutional neural network (CNN), long short term memory (LSTM) and attention mechanism (AM), was developed to monitor the water quality in a full-scale paper industrial wastewater treatment system for energy conservation and emissions reduction. The hybrid CLSTMA model for predicting water quality of paper industrial wastewater treatment system was divided into three steps: spatial information fusion by using CNN module, temporal information fusion by using LSTM module and variable weighted calculation by using AM module. Compare with other models (CNN, LSTM and CLSTM models), RMSE of CLSTMA model for the effluent chemical oxygen demand (CODeff) reduced by 23.3–31.55%, MAE of CLSTMA model reduced by 38.89–74.50%, R of CLSTMA model increased by 8.29–11.86%. For the effluent suspended solids (SSeff), compared with CNN and LSTM models, RMSE of CLSTMA model reduced by 10.26% and 9.92%, MAE of CLSTMA model reduced by 5.37% and 3.44%, R of CLSTMA model increased by 15.13% and 37.21%, respectively. While, R of CLSTMA was consistent with CLSTM model, but RMSE and MAE of CLSTMA model reduced by 16.07% and 7.49% than the CLSTM model. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed CLSTMA model has a great potential in monitoring paper industrial wastewater treatment system for cleaner production.

Metagenomic analysis for profiling of microbial communities and tolerance in metal-polluted pulp and paper industry wastewater

This work aimed to study the profiling and efficiency of microbial communities and their abundance in the pulp and paper industry wastewater, which contained toxic metals, high biological oxygen demands, chemical oxygen demand, and ions contents. Sequence alignment of the 16S rRNA V3-V4 variable region zone with the Illumina MiSeq framework revealed 25356 operating taxonomical units (OTUs) derived from the wastewater sample. The major phyla identified in wastewater were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, Spirochetes, Patesibacteria, Acidobacteria, and others including unknown microbes. The study showed the function of microbial communities essential for the oxidation and detoxifying of complex contaminants and design of effective remediation techniques for the re-use of polluted wastewater. Findings demonstrated that the ability of different classes of microbes to adapt and survive in metal-polluted wastewater irrespective of their relative distribution, as well as further attention can be provided to its use in the bioremediation process.

Bioremediation of paper and cardboard recycling industry wastewater by native yeasts

Bioremediation of paper and cardboard recycling industry wastewater by native yeasts

Predictive capability evaluation and optimization of sustainable biodiesel production from oleaginous biomass grown on pulp and paper industrial wastewater

Biodiesel, as a green fuel, acts as a potential candidate to supplement conventional fossil fuels. This research study targets green environment (using biodiesel) and clean environment (reduce wastewater) by producing biodiesel through oleaginous biomasses (Yarrowia lipolytica, Metschnikowia pulcherrima and Lipomyces starkeyi) grown on pulp and paper industrial wastewater. Batch culture studies were explored for the potential feedstock of the oleaginous organism by the synthesis of single cell oil and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to design the optimal experimental matrix and identify the optimal process conditions that enhance the FAME yield. To determine the inherent characteristics of the growth of oleaginous biomasses on the industrial wastewater, a data-driven adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is implemented. Y. lipolytica strain cultured shown high biomass concentration of 32.36 g/l with biomass productivity of 5.39 g/l/d was considered for further scale-up for the transesterification process. Results indicated that the maximum yield of 0.48 (g-biodiesel/g-lipid) was obtained under the 2.5 g of lipid dosage with 0.02 g/ml of catalyst concentration by constant stirring at 70 °C. The optimum conditions to achieve maximum FAME yield of 1.154 g/g was obtained at 2.485 g, 70.87 °C and 0.021 g/ml for lipid dosage, temperature and catalyst concentrations, respectively.

High loaded moving bed biofilm reactors treating pulp & paper industry wastewater: Effect of hydraulic retention time, filling degree and nutrients availability on performance, biomass fractions and nutrients utilization

For treating pulp and paper (P&P) industry wastewaters, the high-loaded/nutrient-limited moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) is frequently followed by an activated sludge, in the Biofilm-Activated Sludge (BAS) configuration. Evidences show that the MBBR performance relies on a complex surface-volume relation, affecting the biosolids dynamics. That subject was addressed in parallel lab-scale MBBRs, with carrier filling degrees of 15% and 45%, fed with P&P wastewater. The removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and utilization of nutrients were evaluated for varying hydraulic retention times (HRT, 1.6–4.9 h), and availabilities of nitrogen and phosphorous. Nutrients excess and 4.9 h HRT led to soluble COD removal close to 50% (totality of the biodegradable portion) in both reactors, but only 32% was achieved at 1.6 h HRT and 45% filling degree. Restrained wastewater-biosolids contact time rather than overload justified that, as the maximum capacity (Kincannon–Stover model, 30.6 kg sCOD/(m3 d)) was substantially higher than the apparent removal rates (≤ 14.1 kg sCOD/(m3 d)). The performance at 4.9 h HRT was matched at 3.2 h HRT with threefold filling ratio, which compensated the lower contact time. Higher HRT was also responsible for i) improving nutrients usage (up to 1.72 times higher sCOD/P and 1.47 sCOD/N); ii) superior suspended solids content, corresponding up to 30% of total biomass at 4.9 h, against 8.6% at 1.6 h; and iii) up to 2.45 times greater planktonic maximum specific activity. Nutrients restriction boosted the sCOD/nutrient consumption ratio up to 2.65 times for the limited nutrient and 1.70 for the abundant one, with minimal sCOD:N:P (100:0.70:0.14) at limited N and 4.9 h HRT.