A cost effective solution for treatment of rubber factory wastewater
2010
Yapa, P. A. J. | Kudaligama, K. V. V. S. | Thurul, W. M.
Crepe rubber industry is one of the major water polluting industries in all rubber growing countries. There is a necessity to develop suitable treatment technologies for the management of this problem. Covered Activated Ditch (CAD) type test reactors set with Bio-brush media are very effective in rubber factory wastewater treatment. Out of four organic loading rates (OLR) and five specific surface areas (SSA) of media tested respectively, Bio-brush media with 200 m2/m3 SSA under 1.0 COD kg/m3/d OLR was selected as the best for CAD reactors and the average COD removal achieved was about 89%. Results revealed that at higher OLR, correction of pH could be avoided for an efficient treatment and reactors with higher SSA of media were able to tolerate organic shock loads comparatively. The efficiency of treatment increased with increasing SSA of media and no special cycles were observed in removing biomass from the test reactor under any of the four OLRs tested. During maturation, chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH and suspended solids (SS) of treated effluent with 200 m2/m3 SSA were about 100 mg/L, 6.7 – 7.2 and 26 – 43 mg/L respectively which were below the maximum desirable levels stipulated by the Central Environmental Authority of Sri Lanka. Apart from the rubber industry, CAD reactors could also be used for treating biodegradable liquid waste such as waste from the palm oil industry, rice processing industry, sugar industry and others.
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