Studies on biological treatment of pulp and paper mill waste water

Abstract

The pulp and paper mill sector is not only energy-intensive but also a major source of aquatic pollution. The quantity and quality of wastewater produced from these industries vary with its capacity and manufacturing process adopted. To reduce the environmental impact, it is necessary to device an efficient waste management systems that treats the wastewater in a particular treatment method prior to its disposal into the environment. Here an attempt was made to arrive at an effective system that is not only cost effective but also pollution free. In this study the biological treatment was carried out for wastewater collected from pulp and paper industries located near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.Bacterial strain (Pseudomonas alcaligens) and fungal strain (Phanerochaetechrysosporium) were taken for the experimental investigation of wastewater. Among the predominant microbes, the treatment efficiencies of individual and combined isolates were evaluated using shake flask method. The individual strain of bacteria and fungi showed 71.52 % and 68.35 % of COD removal respectively. While the combined strain shows 76.49 % of COD removal which is comparatively higher than the individual strains. The combined isolates were taken for further experimental investigation. Polypropylene spherical shaped balls are used as the biocarriers to determine the efficiency of modified reactor. newline