Treatment and management of wastewater from an acrylic fiber industry | |
| Author | Ray, Bhaskar |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-06-5 |
| Subject(s) | Acrylic fiber industry|--Thailand Sewage--Purification--Activated sludge process--Thailand |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The focus of this study was to evaluate treatment and management options for the wastewater from the selected acrylic fiber industry in Thailand. The key issues confronting the acrylic fiber factory seemed to be the variable COD removal efficiency and volumes of effluent discharge. Increasingly stringent standards and commitments towards total quality management are compelling this industry and the acrylic fiber industry in general, to search for more viable treatment and management schemes. Therefore, this study aims to investigate suitable biological and physico-chemical treatment options along with wastewater minimization and management strategies applicable at the industrial level. The polymerization process in the industry was identified as a critical area from the perspective of wastewater treatment and management. Hence, a bench-scale treatability study was conducted using the selected polymer wash wastewater to investigate the relative efficiencies and effectiveness of treatment using biological and physico-chemical treatment processes. Treatability study was conducted through the activated sludge and membrane filtration processes simultaneously. The activated sludge process was first operated in a batch setup and then as a continuous stage. The results revealed a high degree of variation in COD removal efficiency in the range of 37-87 % which was owing to the non-biodegradable nature of the influent wastewater containing the acrylic polymer, while the maximum TKN removal achieved was only 27%. In comparison, the Membrane filtration experiments on an ultrafiltration batch setup yielded maximum COD and TKN removal efficiencies of 69% and 59% respectively. This confirmed that low biodegradability was due to the refractory polymer part which however could be retained by the ultrafiltration membrane. It was concluded that the membrane processes can be used effectively in combination with the biological processes for high removal efficiencies for the wastewater from acrylic fiber industry |
| Year | 2006 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Annachhatre, Ajit P. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Shipin, Oleg ;Nguyen T. Kim Oanh |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | AIT Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006 |