Environmental Protection and Management Dr. Veerendra Kumar A. K.

Module - V
Applications
Syllabus:
Applications:
Applications of EMS. Waste Audits and Pollution Prevention Control: Textile, Sugar, Pulp
& Paper, Electroplating, Tanning industry. Hazardous Wastes – Classification,
characteristics treatment and Disposal Methods. Transboundary movement, disposal.

Environmental Management (EM), represents the management of various activities,

including environmental planning, conservation of resources, environmental status
evaluation and environmental legislation and administration and focuses more on
implementation, monitoring, auditing, practice and real-world issues than on theoretical
planning.
An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set of processes and practices that
enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating
efficiency.
The following management principles are common to all EMSs:

➢ A policy that articulates a commitment to a specific level of environmental

performance;
➢ Specific measurable quantity and quality objectives and performance targets;
➢ A planning process and strategy to meet the commitment;
➢ An organized institutional structure to execute the strategy;
➢ Implementation programs and support tools to meet objectives;
➢ Communications and training programs; and
➢ Measurement and review process to monitor progress

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Application of environmental management system (EMS)

Since, an Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set of processes and practices
that enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its
operating efficiency, it can be applied to all sectors, such as all manufacturing industries,
Natural Parks and Reserves, urban environment and municipalities, watersheds, etc.
Environmental Management in Manufacturing Industries
The environmental management system (EMS), ISO 14001, is used by many
manufacturing companies to support their environmental work. The standard comprises
a set of tools to be used by organizations to systematically control their direct and indirect
environmental aspects and improve environmental performance. Parts of the ISO 14000
series are: environmental management system, revision, assessment, and declarations,
together with tools for life cycle analysis, environmentally adaptive product
development, communication, standard for how to report on greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions, and terminology (SIS, 2006). The ISO 14001 standard does not set absolute
requirements of an organization’s environmental performance but implies an obligation
to follow legislations and to continuously reduce the environmental impact. It is very
much up to the responsibility and ambition level of each company of how the
environmental issues are handled.
Besides reducing the environmental impact by more efficient management during the
operations phase, manufacturing industries need to put more emphasis on the design
phase of the production system, as this is the real root cause for how the production then
will be operated. It means that the window of opportunity of making early decisions
during the design phase (of both product and production system) should be utilized for
the purpose of reducing the overall environmental impact during the whole product and
production system life cycles.
Natural Parks and Reserves
Natural parks and reserves have to face problems concerning the conservation of their
natural resources. Citizens and firms often perceive the institution of new protected areas
more as a bind or a restriction to their activities than an added value of the territory.
Following the principles of sustainable development, it is necessary to integrate the
environmental protection with the needs of neighboring urban areas and production
sites.
An EMS can support the management of a park, giving to the administration a structured,
transparent and organized system to individuate, monitor and improve its significant
environmental aspects. The implementation of an EMS becomes complex when it
involves a large territory and a lot of different stakeholders.
Urban Environment and Municipalities
Application of environmental management system (EMS) in urban environment provides
a city with orderliness, regularity, quietness and freshness environment. Besides, it
contributes sustainable development and optimization in life level index of the city. If the

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whole urban districts design and establish an environmental management system ISO
14001, the development will be faster and more sustainable.
Watersheds
The application of EMS principles to the development and/or the protection of a
watershed can similarly help both the public and private sectors to achieve their goals.
More particularly, they include the efficient integration of water quantity and water
quality, environmental as well as human health protection, industrial growth, and the
systematic management of water and related land resources.
Waste Audits and Pollution Prevention Control:
1) Textile Industry
Textiles are among the basic needs of human being. Textile industries transform fibers
into yarn and into fabrics or related products. In processing of textiles, the industry uses
a number of dyes chemicals, auxiliary chemicals and sizing materials. As a result,
contaminated wastewater is generated which can cause environmental problems unless
treated and disposed of adequately.
Process flow chart

The major operations performed in a typical textile processing industry are desizing,
scouring, mercerizing, bleaching, neutralizing, dyeing, printing and finishing. Textile
industries generate all three kinds of waste i.e liquid effluents, air emissions and solid
wastes. However, liquid effluents are of utmost concern because of its high volume and
pollution potential. Quantity and nature of waste generated depends on the fabric being
processed, chemicals being used, technology being employed, operating practices etc.
The important pollutants present in a typical textile waste effluent are colour, bio-
chemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), toxic heavy metals,

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residual chlorine, dissolved solids and non-biodegradable organics termed as refractory

materials.
The textile units may have utilities such as raw water treatment system, cooling towers,
laboratory, workshop(s), fuel storage facilities, residential colony, administrative block,
canteen etc. which generates utility waste water and domestic waste water. Main sources
of air pollution are boilers(s), thermo pack and diesel generator(s) which generate
gaseous pollutants such as suspended particulate matter (SPM), sulphur di oxide gas,
oxide of nitrogen gas etc.
Textile industry is also a major source of hazardous waste generation. The sources of
hazardous waste generation are effluent treatment plant sludge, used oil, empty
containers of dyes and other chemicals etc.
Water Pollution Control Arrangements in the Textile Industry

The waste water generated from the textile industry are required to be treated by a
suitable mechanism before it can be disposed-off in any receiving media such as river,
pond, lake or needs to be utilized for plantation. Typically, the conventional wastewater
treatment system in textile processing industries includes screen chamber, oil & grease
trap, equalization and coagulation in primary treatment systems and activated sludge
treatment or two-stage aeration followed by clarifier in secondary treatment system.
Although COD/BOD reductions are achieved through this conventional treatment system,
objectionable color, high TDS levels of effluents remain and effluents are not fit to be
discharged to surface water or on land. Hence, tertiary treatment systems are becoming
necessary for achieving disposal standards. Membrane based processes such as Reverse
Osmosis (R.O), ultra-filtration and nano filtration are widely used as end of the treatment
for removal of organics and dissolved salts. Ozonization is also one of the tertiary

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treatment options which is mainly used for the oxidation of organic and inorganic,
deodorization, and decolonization in textile industries. Typically, evaporation process is
used for evaporation of high concentrated rejects of R.O, ultra-filtration, nano filtration
etc., where TDS concentration is high. Similarly, Multiple Effect Evaporators, Mechanical
Vapor Compression, Direct Contact Evaporation are various methods used for
evaporation of effluents or rejects generated from the membrane processes.
Air Pollution Control Arrangements in the Textile Industry
Main sources of air pollution in textile industry are boilers, furnaces and D.G. sets on
which adequate air pollution control measures, stack heights and infrastructure facilities
for air pollution monitoring are required to be provided. Apart from that, D.G sets also
generate noise pollution for which separate standards are laid down.
On small coal fired boilers of steam capacity up to 15 tons per day, industry is required
to install cyclone, multi cyclone, bag filter or electro static precipitator (ESP) depending
on the steam generating capacity. On all boilers using liquid fuel or coal, height of the
stack will be governed by flow rate of sulphur di oxide emissions. However, in no case the
stack height will be less than 11 meters.
Air emissions from D.G sets are presently governed by adequate stack height to be
provided on the D.G. sets depending on its capacity.
Handling, storage, treatment and disposal of the hazardous waste is governed by
Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling and Trans boundary Movement) Rules, 2008.

2) Sugar Industry
➢ Sugar is one of the significant agricultural products and industries processing
sugar are vital for Indian economy.
➢ Sugar industry is one of the important agro-based industries in India.
➢ The industry has created significant socio-economic impact on rural agro-based
economy in particular, and Indian economy in general.
Process flow chart

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Sources of wastewater and characteristics

❖ The wastewater from mill house include the water used as splashes to extract
maximum amount of juice and those used to cool the roller bearings. This
wastewater contains high BOD due to presence of sugar and oil and grease from
machineries.
❖ The wastewater from occasional washing of filter cloths (used for filtering the
juice) though small in volume, contains high BOD and SS.
❖ The water used for cooling in evaporators also contributes as wastewater. The
cooling water gets polluted as it picks up some organic substances from the vapors
of boiling syrup in evaporators and vacuum pan. Although this water is
recirculated it is required to be discharged. This contributes to considerable
volume of waste and moderate BOD.
❖ Additional waste originates due to the leakages and spillages of juice, syrup and
molasses in different sections, and also during handling of molasses. Washing of
floor (periodic) contributes a lot to pollution load. Though, it is small in volume,
strong in BOD concentration.
❖ Periodic blow-off of the boilers produce another intermittent waste discharge.
This is high in SS, low in BOD and usually alkaline.
Characteristics of combined waste from sugar mill

Pollution Prevention and Control in sugar industries

❖ Reduce product losses to less than 10% by better production control. Perform
sugar auditing.
❖ Discourage spraying of molasses on the ground for disposal.
❖ Minimize storage time for juice and other intermediate products to reduce
product losses and discharge of product into the wastewater stream.
❖ Give preference to less polluting clarification processes such as those using
bentonite instead of sulfite for the manufacture of white sugar.
❖ Collect waste product for use in other industries—for example, bagasse for use in
paper mills and as fuel. Cogeneration systems for large sugar mills generate
electricity for sale. Beet chips can be used as animal feed.
❖ Optimize the use of water and cleaning chemicals. Procure cane washed in the
field. Prefer the use of dry-cleaning methods.

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❖ Recirculate cooling waters. Continuous sampling and measurement of key

production parameters allow production losses to be identified and reduced, thus
reducing the waste load. Fermentation processes and juice handling are the main
sources of leakage. Odor problems can usually be prevented with good hygiene
and storage practices.
❖ Since the pollutants generated by the industry are largely losses in production,
improvements in production efficiency are recommended to reduce pollutant
loads. Approximately 90% of the saccharose should be accounted for, and 85% of
the sucrose can be recovered. Recirculation of water should be maximized.
Wastewater loads can be reduced to at least 1.3 m3/t of cane processed, and plant
operators should aim at rates of 0.9 m3/t or less through recirculation of
wastewater. Wastewater loads from beet processing should be less than 4m3/t of
sugar produced or 0.75 m3/t of beet processed, with a target of 0.3 to 0.6 m3/t of
beet processed.
Waste Water Treatment Methods in Sugar Industry

Treatment of sugar industry wastewater requires a process that combines mechanical,

chemical, and biological treatment measures.
Screening, grit removal, flow equalization, sedimentation, or dissolved air flotation is
used to reduce suspended solids (SS) load from sugar industry wastewater.
Coagulation/flocculation with inorganic coagulants and adsorption are widely used for
the removal of suspended, colloidal, and dissolved solids from wastewaters.
Since, sugar industry wastewater contains mostly sugars and volatile fatty acids, which
are easily biodegradable; therefore, all the biological (anaerobic and aerobic) treatment
processes are suitable.
Aerobic biological treatment generally involves degradation of organic in the occurrence
of oxygen. Conventional aerobic treatment includes activated sludge, trickling filters,
aerated lagoons, or a combination of all.
Anaerobic wastewater treatment is a biological process where microorganisms degrade
organic contaminants in the absence of oxygen. The anaerobic wastewater treatment

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process consists of two stages: an acidification phase followed by a methane production

phase, with both processes occurring in dynamic equilibrium. The 4 stages of anaerobic
are Hydrolysis, Acidogenesis (acidogenic bacteria), Acetogenesis (acetogenic bacteria),
Methanogenesis (methanogens) as shown in below figure.

Aerated lagoons were also used in past and showed lesser residence time and area
required compared to lagoons, to treat sugar industry wastewater, but oxygen
consumption and HRT (hydraulic retention time) were found to be high, and still large
area requirement is disadvantage.

3) Pulp and Paper Industry

The pulp and paper industry comprise companies that use wood as raw material and
produce pulp, paper, paperboard and other cellulose-based products. The pulp and paper
industry are categorized into 3 sectors:
1. Waste paper based units without bleaching process to manufacture craft paper.
This industry mainly generates water and air pollution.
2. Waste paper based units with bleaching process to manufacture writing and
printing paper. This industry generates all sorts of pollution.
3. Large and small scale agro (wheat straw or rice husk) and wood-based units. This
industry generates all sorts of pollution and it is one among 17 highly polluting
industry.

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Process flow chart and Sources of Effluents

Pollution prevention control in pulp and paper industry

Modern waste minimization approach is by two means. This first way is chemical
recovery and recycling. This system especially in chemical pulping process significantly
reduces pollutants and additionally economical return is another important aspect.
Chemical recovery is necessary because of the basic economic viability of the kraft
process. According to EPA, all kraft pulp mills worldwide use chemical recovery systems.
Additionally, scrubber system particulate "baghouses" or electrostatic precipitators
(ESPs) are often mill air pollution control components.
The second way to minimize waste production from pulp and paper mills is the
application of best available techniques (BAT) according to the Integrated Pollution,
Prevention and Control (IPPC) Regulation. An effective waste minimization method
reduces cost, liability, regulatory burdens of hazardous waste management.
Furthermore, hazardous waste generation can be reduced by waste management
methods including: -
• production, planning and sequencing
• process adjustment and/or modification
• raw material replacement
• housekeeping waste segregation and separation
• recycling
The industries have developed and applied new technologies instead of conventional
pulping and bleaching processes. Some examples of these new technologies are given
below:
Organic Solvent Pulping: This process is more economical for small and medium scale
plants for significant recovery and reuse of chemicals. In this process, organic solvent like
ethanol, methanol, etc. are preferred. However, this process is more energy consumer
than conventional ones.
Acid Pulping: Acetic acid under the high pressure is used for treating of wood chips. The
disadvantage of this process is to loss of acid; however, recovery is possible.

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Biopulping: Microorganism or microbial enzymes such as xylanases, pectinases,

cellulases, hemicellulases, ligninases, and their combination are used in the pulping
process to improve the properties of pulp. Biopulping is preferred because:
• To reduce the chemical and energy utilization
• To reduce the pollutants
• To increase the yield and strength properties of pulp.

Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) and Total Chlorine Free (TCF) Bleaching: Elemental
chlorine has been used instead of chlorine dioxide and hypochlorite and oxygen, ozone,
caustic soda, and hydrogen peroxide have been applied for TCF bleaching of Kraft pulps
to reduce the chlorinated organic wastes.
Biobleaching: Fungal cells and or their enzymes are used for pretreatment of pulp. A
number of studies showed that application of white rod fungi reduces the chemical
dosage of bleaching and enhances the brightness of paper.
Extended Delignification: Enhanced removal of lignin before bleaching step is the main
concern of this method. It may be achieved by extended cooking, oxygenation, ozonation,
and addition of chemical catalysts. Extended delignification positively affect on the bleach
effluent quality parameters such as COS, BOD, color and AOX.
Waste water Treatment in pulp and paper industry
End of the pipe pollution treatment strategies are necessary to provide the discharge
limits. The general flow-chart of a typical wastewater treatment plant is given Figure

The main treatment application for wastewater generated from pulp and paper process
is primary and secondary treatment. However, tertiary treatment can be an obligation in
future due to possible new legislations. The physicochemical step is rare at present.
Primary Treatment
In this step, the aim is to remove suspended solid such as bark particles, fiber, fiber debris,
filler and coating materials and consequently organic materials. Primary clarification can
also be achieved without sedimentation and flotation. However, the sedimentation is
generally preferred application for the pulp and paper mills and approximately 80% of
suspended solid was removed successfully. Further, 70-80% of removal is achieved in the
sedimentation. Dissolved air flotation and filtration are the other option as primary
treatment for pulp and paper mills.

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Secondary Treatment
Aerobic lagoons, activated sludge systems, anaerobic treatment and sequential biological
treatment (aerobic-anaerobic or anaerobic-aerobic) are the most common biological
treatment application for pulp and paper mills.
Activated Sludge Systems:
This conventional treatment system is used in treatment of several industrial wastewater
types in order to remove COD, BOD, SS, AOX and other specific compounds such as
chlorinated phenols, guaiacols, catechols, vanillins, 1,1-dichlorodimethyl sulfone (DSS),
and chlorinated acetic acid by this method.
Aerated Lagoons (Stabilization Basins):
Aerated lagoons are the simple and economical biological systems and they have been
studies very well as lab-scale and full-scale at the pulp and paper mills. These systems
have been used for removal of BOD, low-molecular weight AOX and fatty acids at full-
scale applications
Anaerobic Treatment Processes:
Anaerobic treatment processes are more suitable for treatment of high strength
wastewater such as pulp and paper mills. The 4 stages of anaerobic are Hydrolysis,
Acidogenesis (acidogenic bacteria), Acetogenesis (acetogenic bacteria), Methanogenesis
(methanogens). Anaerobic microorganisms are more efficient than aerobics in order to
degrade chlorinated organic compounds.
Fungal Treatment:
Fungal species have been used to remove color and COD from pulp and paper mills and
white rod fungi are the most widely used species.
Tertiary Treatment
Coagulation/Precipitation:
Addition of metal salts to generate larger flocs from small particles for removing the
pollutants easily is the main principle of this method.
Adsorption:
This method relies on the addition of an adsorbent such as activated coke, fuller’s earth,
coal ash, activated carbon, and activated charcoal to the wastewater to remove the
pollutants.
Chemical Oxidation:
Advanced oxidation methods such as photocatalysis, photo-oxidation, Fenton type
reactions, wet oxidation, ozonation are used to achieve the destruction of chromophoric
and non chromophoric pollutants in pulp and paper mills.
Membrane Filtration:
Membrane filtration is a potential method to remove colour, COD, AOX, salts, heavy
metals, and total dissolved solids from pulp and paper mills
Management and disposal of solid wastes
Integrated solid waste management of pulp and paper mills are through anaerobic
digestion, composting, land applications, thermal processes such as
incineration/combustion, pyrolysis, steam reforming, and wet oxidation.

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Treatment of air pollution/gas emissions in pulp and paper industry

Air pollution control at pulp and paper mills has been important concern in the recent
years. Especially VOCs produced form pulp and bleaching steps and steam are
conventionally treated by physico-chemical methods such as adsorption to activated coal
filters, absorption, thermal oxidation, catalytic oxidation, and condensation
Another sources of air pollution in pulp and paper industry are boilers, furnaces and D.G.
sets on which adequate air pollution control measures, stack heights and infrastructure
facilities for air pollution monitoring are required to be provided. However, in no case the
stack height will be less than 11 meters.
Air emissions from D.G sets are presently governed by adequate stack height to be
provided on the D.G. sets depending on its capacity.
4) Electroplating Industry
Electroplating is a general name for processes that produce a metal coating on a solid
substrate through the reduction of
cations of that metal by means of a
direct electric current. The part to be
coated acts as the cathode (negative
electrode) of an electrolytic cell; the
electrolyte is a solution of a salt of the
metal to be coated; and the anode
(positive electrode) is usually either a
block of that metal, or of some inert
conductive material. The current is
provided by an external power
supply.

Process flow diagram

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Pollution Prevention and Control in electroplating industry

Plating involves different combinations of a wide variety of processes, and there are many
opportunities to improve on traditional practices in the industry. The improvements
listed below should be implemented where possible.
Changes in Process
❖ Replace cadmium with high-quality, corrosion-resistant zinc plating. Use cyanide-
free systems for zinc plating where appropriate. Where cadmium plating is
necessary, use bright chloride, high-alkaline baths, or other alternatives. Note,
however, that use of some alternatives to cyanides may lead to the release of heavy
metals and cause problems in wastewater treatment.
❖ Use trivalent chrome instead of hexavalent chrome; acceptance of the change in
finish needs to be promoted.
❖ Give preference to water-based surface-cleaning agents, where feasible, instead of
organic cleaning agents, some of which are considered toxic.
❖ Regenerate acids and other process ingredients whenever feasible.
Reduction in Dragout and Wastage
❖ Minimize dragout through effective draining of bath solutions from the plated
part, by, for example, making drain holes in bucket-type pieces, if necessary.
❖ Allow dripping time of at least 10 to 20 seconds before rinsing.
❖ Use fog spraying of parts while dripping.
❖ Maintain the density, viscosity, and temperature of the baths to minimize dragout.
❖ Place recovery tanks before the rinse tanks (also yielding makeup for the process
tanks). The recovery tank provides for static rinsing with high dragout recovery
Minimizing Water Consumption in Rinsing Systems
It is possible to design rinsing systems to achieve 50–99% reduction in traditional water
usage. Testing is required to determine the optimum method for any specific process, but
proven approaches include:
❖ Agitation of rinse water or work pieces to increase rinsing efficiency
❖ Multiple countercurrent rinses
❖ Spray rinses (especially for barrel loads).
Management of Process Solutions
❖ Recycle process baths after concentration and filtration. Spent bath solutions
should be sent for recovery and regeneration of plating chemicals, not discharged
into wastewater treatment units.
❖ Recycle rinse waters (after filtration).
❖ Regularly analyze and regenerate process solutions to maximize useful life.
❖ Clean racks between baths to minimize contamination.
❖ Cover degreasing baths containing chlorinated solvents when not in operation to
reduce losses. Spent solvents should be sent to solvent recyclers and the residue
from solvent recovery properly managed (e.g., blended with fuel and burned in a
combustion unit with proper controls for toxic metals).

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Target Pollution Loads

A key parameter is the water use in each process. Systems should be designed to reduce
water use. Where electroplating is routinely performed on objects with known surface
area in a production unit, water consumption of no more than 1.3 liters per square meter
plated (l/m2) for rack plating and 10 l/m2 for drum plating should be achieved. The
recommended pollution prevention and control measures can achieve the target levels
listed below.
❖ Cadmium plating should be avoided. Where there are no feasible alternatives, a
maximum cadmium load in the waste of 0.3 grams for every kilogram of cadmium
processed is recommended.
❖ At least 90% of the solvent emissions to air must be recovered by the use of an air
pollution control system such as a carbon filter.
❖ Ozone-depleting solvents such as chlorofluorocarbons and trichloroethane are
not to be used in the process.
Waste treatment in electroplating industry
The technological processes of electroplating wastewater treatment are classified
according to the reactions and chemical composition of the electrolytes, which are the
source of wastewater forming. Consequently, the operations on the electroplating
manufactories can be divided into 4 groups according to 4 wastewater types:
1. The operations, forming the solutions or rinse waters, which include the cyanide
compounds – the main processes of galvanizing and washing after these solutions;
2. The operations, forming the solutions or rinse waters, which include the
chromium compounds – the main processes of chrome-plating, chromium
passivation and washing after these solutions;
3. The operations, forming the solutions or rinse waters, which include the heavy
metal ions – the main processes of electrochemical metal reduction and washing
after these solutions;
4. The operations, forming the solutions or rinse waters, which do not include the
abovementioned compounds – the minor works (degreasing, etching).
In general, the contaminants contained in the electroplating wastewater that are toxic in
nature and require treatment are cyanide, hexavalent chromium and heavy metals.
Several types of treatment methods have been developed for each specific contaminant.
Each treatment method has its particular application and constraints. Table 3
summarizes the more common methods of treatment of the three types of contaminants.
Table: Methods of Treatment of Electroplating Wastes
Parameter Type of treatment method
➢ Chlorination
Treatment ➢ Ozonation
of cyanide ➢ Electrolysis
➢ Ion exchange
Treatment ➢ Reduction to trivalent chromium and precipitation
of ➢ Cementation
hexavalent ➢ Precipitation as barium salt
chromium ➢ Ion exchange

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➢ Neutralization and Precipitation as hydroxides (for non-complexed

metal)
Treatment ➢ Precipitation as metal sulphide (for both complexed and non-
of metals complexed metal)
➢ Destruction of complexes and precipitation (for complexed metal)
➢ Ion exchange
Treatment of Cyanide
(1) Chlorination: The use of sodium hypochlorite to oxidize the cyanide to fewer
toxic products is the most widely practiced treatment method and is considered
to be most suitable to small electroplaters.
The destruction of cyanide by sodium hypochlorite is accomplished in the following
stages:
1st stage: (a) NaCN + NaOCl + H2O ---> CNCl+2NaOH
(b) CNCl + 2NaOH ---> NaCNO+NaCl+H2O

2nd stage: 2NaCNO + 2NaOH+3NaOCl ---> 2Na2CO3 + 3NaCl + N2 + H2O

Overall: 2NaCN +5NaOCI +2NaOH ---> 2Na2CO3 + 5NaCl + N2 + H2O

(2) Ozonation: Similar to chlorination, the destruction of cyanide by ozone occurs in

two stages, with cyanate formed as an intermediate:

NaCN+O3 ---> NaCNO + O2

2NaCNO + 3O3 + H2O ---> NaOH +2CO2 + N2 + 3O2
Overall: 2NaCN + 5O3 + H2O ---> 2NaOH + 2CO2 + N2 + 5O2
(3) Electrolytic oxidation: Oxidation by anodic oxidation is particularly suitable for
high concentrations. Removal rate can be as high as 260-380 mgCN/Ah for
cyanide concentrations between 1000-3000 mg/l, but rapidly decreases at lower
concentrations.
(4) Ion exchange. Cyanide in wastewater may be removed by adsorption on anionic
exchange resins. The adsorbed cyanide may later be eluted off by passing
regenerants, such as sodium hydroxide or sodium chloride, through the resins.
The regenerated cyanide may be reused as process chemicals or treated before
discharge.
Treatment of Chromium
1) Reduction of hexavalent chromium and precipitation. The most widely used
method of treating hexavalent chromium is to reduce it chemically to a trivalent
state and subsequently precipitate it out of solution as hydroxides. The common
chemical reductants used by small electroplaters are sodium sulphite (Na2SO3),
sodium bisulphite (NaHSO3), sodium metabisulphite (Na2S2O5) and ferrous
sulphate (FeSO4.7H2O).
2) Cementation: Cementation is the use of scrap metal to electrochemically reduce
the hexavalent chromium. By allowing the electroplating waste containing

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hexavalent chromium to come into contact with scraps of reactive metals (such as
iron, zinc or aluminium), the hexavalent chromium is reduced.
3) Precipitation as insoluble barium salt: It is possible to precipitate chromium in
the hexavalent state by forming the insoluble barium chromate.
CrO42- + Ba2+ ---> BaCrO4
The reaction can be carried out at pH 8-9 and is only used as an emergency remedy
because barium salt is expensive. Lack of treatment is apparent by the presence of
a yellow color which indicates the presence of unreduced chromate ions.
4) Ion exchange: Ion exchange is one of the more widely employed chromium and
chromic acid recovery processes. Although cation exchange may be used to
recover trivalent chromium it is seldom practiced due to complexity of operation.
Treatment of Metal
1) Removal as hydroxides: Precipitation of metals contained in the electroplating
waste is the most widely adopted treatment method for removal of metals. Each
metal species has a particular optimum pH range for its maximum removal. The
more commonly used chemicals for pH adjustment are caustic soda and lime,
caustic soda being the more expensive.
2) Removal as sulphide: Owing to the inherent solubility of metal hydroxides, it
may not be possible to reduce the metal contents to a very low concentration such
as 0.1 mg/l by precipitation as metal hydroxide. In this case, it may be necessary
to precipitate the metals as insoluble sulphides. The principle of sulphide
precipitation is that the solubilities of metal sulphides are generally much lower
than the hydroxides. Hence, by forming metal sulphides, the metal concentrations
in a wastewater can substantially be reduced to very low levels. The sulphide
reagent may be added in form of soluble sodium sulphide or insoluble ferrous
sulphide. This removal method, however, suffers from some operational
difficulties such as less settleable sludge and the need for control of addition of
reaction chemicals.
3) Destruction of complexes and precipitation: Some of the metal finishing
operations may involve the use of complexing agents. The wastewater discharged
from these operations may therefore contain complexed metal species which are
often found to be unamenable to conventional treatment methods such as
hydroxide precipitation. To effect metal removal the complexes would have to be
broken but a ready treatment method to destroy the complexes does not exist.
Depending upon the type of complex ions concerned the measures that may be
applicable for metal complex destruction are dilution, oxidation, etc.
5) Tanning Industry
Tanning is the process that converts a part of a once living animal (i.e., hides and skins)
into a non-rotting, soft and durable textile called leather
Two types of tanning, broadly:
❖ Vegetable tanning
❖ Chrome tanning

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Procedures involved:
After removal of hairs and flesh, the involved processes are curing, receiving and storing,
soaking, unhairing, bating, pickling, tanning, wringing, sorting, splitting and shaving.

Characteristics of Tannery Wastewater

The characteristics of tannery wastewater vary considerably from tannery to tannery
depending upon the size of the tannery, chemicals used for a specific process, amount of
water used and type of final product produced by a tannery. Tannery wastewater is
characterized mainly by measurements of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical
Oxygen Demand (COD), suspended solids (SS) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS),
chromium and sulfides etc.
After
From Mixed After
chemical
Component Chromium waste mechanical
precipitation
tanning water cleaning
with Ca(OH)2
pH 9-12 8-9 8-9 10-11
Suspended particles (g/L) 0.5-2.5 1-2 0.1-0.4 0.1-0.2
Total dry matter (g/L) 7-8 3-5 2-3 1.0-2.5
BOD5 (g/L) 0.5-0.8 0.5-1.0 0.3-0.5 0.2-0.4
COD (g/L) 0.5-1.0 0.5-1.2 0.4-0.8 0.2-0.5
Total nitrogen (mg/L) 150-350 100-200 40-100 30-60
Total P (mg/L) 50-200 10-40 10-30 1-5
Ammonium nitrogen (mg/L) 50-100 50-100 40-80 25-50
Sulphide (mg/L) 30-100 2-10 1-5 1-3
Chloride (g/L ) 1-2 1-2 1-2 1-2
Sulphate (mg/L) 100-400 100-400 100-400 100-400
Chromium (mainly as Cr3+)
20-10 0.1-2.0 traces traces
(m g /L)

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Pollution prevention control in tanneries

Systematic implementation of the waste minimization measures in tannery sector can
provide a viable solution to the environmental problems faced by the tanners as well as
assist the tanners in improving their profitability. The following measures should be
taken:
a. All the tanneries shall install water meters and flow meters to measure actual
consumption and waste water discharged. Water consumption rates shall be
brought down to less than the prescribed limits per ton of hides by taking water
conservation measures.
b. Process-wise, some of the waste minimization measures to be adopted by the
tannery units include the following:
i) Soaking: The waste minimization measures for reducing water consumption
inter-alia include:
✓ Use of counter current system of washing to concentrate the salt and other soluble
materials such as dirt and blood.
✓ Reuse of the 2nd main soak for dirt soak: Soaking consists of dirt soak and main
soak. The main soak is retained and used for dirt soak for the following batch.
✓ Reuse of dirt soak: The dirt soak liquor may be collected and added polyelectrolyte
to flocculate and settle the suspended solids. Soak liquor thus treated and filtered
can be reused partially in liming, deliming washes and pickling.
✓ Drum soaking instead of pit soaking: This will not only reduce water consumption
but will also bring down the soaking time from 12 hrs to 3 hrs. This will enable the
tanners to construct solar evaporation pond in less area thereby using the open
land for more productive use.
✓ Addition of soaking enzymes: Soaking enzymes are added to achieve uniform and
thorough soaking. Further, to improve the treatability of waste water, regular
wetting agent should be substituted with biodegradable wetting agents.
✓ Stop ''open washing systems” in drum washing. Use batch systems only. Batch
washing involves washing of hides and skins during processing by introducing the
required quantity of clean water into the processing vessel and using the action of
the vessel to achieve the required agitation as opposed to running water washes
which use the inflow and outflow of large quantities of water.
ii) Liming: The following measures shall be adopted to optimise chemical
consumption in this process step. These include:
✓ Substitution of paste lime by 85% pure calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2]: This will
bring down the quantity of consumption of powdered lime to one third ofits
original quantity. lt will also reduce the frequency of cleaning the primary settling
tanks which consisted mainly of the lime sludge.
✓ Use of liming enzymes: Use of liming enzymes will reduce Sodium sulphide (NaS)
consumption by 40%.
✓ Provision of a slight slope in the pasting area: By providing a slight slope in the
pasting area the excess liming paste can be effectively collected and used which is
otherwise washed away in the drain by lime yard workers.

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✓ Reuse of relime liquor: 50% of relime liquor can be retained and reused for liming
of subsequent batches. This will also reduce water consumption in liming.
In addition to optimization of the chemical consumption in liming section, fleshings can
be used to produce biogas, gelatin, glue and also high-grade protein. This will solve the
problem of solid waste disposal from the liming section.
iii) Deliming: Efforts should be made to reduce the water consumption in this
section process by implementing the following measures:
✓ Use of deliming agents such as ammonium chloride/ ammonium sulphide.
✓ Use of 2nd delime wash for liming.
✓ Reduce the use of ammonium by the injection of carbon dioxide gas (mainly
applicable for large tanneries and /or the use of other substitutes deliming agents

iv) Pickling: In this process, the following measures should be adopted to reduce
salt consumption:
✓ Use of drained float for next batch or go directly to tanning.
✓ Controlling pickle liquor to 6° - 7° to optimise use of sodium chloride (NaCl).
v) Chrome tanning: The following measures should be adopted to recover
chrome from chrome tanning process, if it is applicable for the tannery. It may
be restricted by the need to produce leather properties which meat the
customer requirement in particular related to dyeing (reduced fastness and
less brightness of colors) and fogging.
✓ Collection of spent chrome liquor after basification and recovery of chrome from
the same. The recovered chrome can be used along with regular Basic Chrome
Sulphate (BCS) for chrome tanning.
vi) Dyeing: The waste minimization measures under this process include the
following:
✓ Use of soft water for dyeing process to reduce the dye consumption as well as
syntans consumption, in case, the fresh water quantity is not good enough
(hardness).
✓ Use of automated water dosing systems.
Treatment of Tannery Wastewater
Tannery wastewaters are highly complex and are characterized by high contents of
organic, inorganic and nitrogenous compounds, chromium, sulfides, suspended solids
and dissolved solids. Treatment of tannery wastewater is carried out by physical or
chemical or biological or combination of these methods.
Wastewater treatment is a multi-stage process to purify wastewater before it enters a
body of natural water, or it is applied to the land, or it is reused. The goal is to reduce or
remove organic matter, solids, nutrients, Cr and other pollutants since each receiving
body of water can only receive certain amounts of pollutants without suffering
degradation. The three main categories of tannery wastewater, each one having very
distinctive characteristics, are:

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❖ Effluents originating from the beam-house – liming, deliming/bating, water from

fleshing and splitting machines; they contain sulphides, their pH is high, but they
are chrome-free.
❖ Effluents originating from the tanyard (tanning and re-tanning, sammying) – high
Cr content, acidic.
❖ Soaking and other general effluents, mainly from post-tanning operations (fat-
liquoring, dyeing) – low Cr content.

It is very important to segregate these streams and to pre-treat them separately

according to their characteristics to avoid possible safety risks (formation of deadly
hydrogen sulphide) and to reduce the cost of treatment and sludge disposal (to avoid
contamination of sludge with Cr). The main phases of treatment are as follows:
Preliminary treatment
Their role is to remove large particles, sand/grit and grease, but also to significantly
reduce the content of chrome and sulphides before the effluent is discharged into the
collection network.
Physical-chemical treatment (primary)
The objective here is the removal of settleable organic and inorganic solids by
sedimentation, and the removal of materials that will float (scum) by skimming.
Approximately 25-50% of the incoming biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), 50-70% of
total suspended solids (SS), and 65% of the oil and grease are removed during primary
treatment. The effluent and sludge from primary sedimentation are referred to as
primary effluent and sludge. Basic steps involved in this are:
✓ Screening (bar, self-cleaning)
✓ Pumping/lifting
✓ Fine screening
✓ Equalization and sulphide oxidation
✓ Chemical treatment (coagulation, flocculation)
✓ Settling

Biological treatment (secondary)

In most cases, secondary treatment follows primary treatment, its goal being the removal
of biodegradable dissolved and colloidal organic matter using aerobic biological
treatment processes. Aerobic biological treatment is carried out in the presence of oxygen
by aerobic micro-organisms (principally bacteria) that metabolize the organic matter in
the wastewater, thereby producing more micro-organisms and inorganic end products
(principally CO2, NH3, and H2O).
Advanced (tertiary) treatment
Tertiary or advanced wastewater treatment is employed to reduce residual COD load
and/or when specific wastewater constituents are not removed by previous treatment
stages.
Sludge handling and disposal
Effluent treatment plants produce treated, “cleaned” effluent and sludge because
inherently the primary aim of wastewater treatment is the removal of solids and some
potentially hazardous substances from the wastewater. Furthermore, biologically
degradable organic substances are converted into bacterial cells, and the latter are
removed from the wastewater.

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Environmental auditing (EA)/Waste audit in textile, sugar, pulp and paper,

electroplating and tanning industries
OBJECTIVE
❖ To conduct Eco-Audit in different companies to understand current status of
awareness regarding environmental protection in Industries.
❖ Focus will be given to understand chemical Management System and create
awareness about harmful effects on human being and aquatic life due to Restricted
Substances.
❖ Encourage industries to adopt environmental policy, conduct environmental
review, introduce environmental Program, carry out internal audit, set the
objectives aimed at the continuous improvement of environmental performance,
prepare an environmental statement
The functions of environmental audits are:
❖ To improve an organizations compliance with environmental legislation and
regulations such as air emission standards, effluent standards, waste management
standards and standard operating procedures.
❖ To prevent damage and the tendency for environmental damage.
❖ To improve resource use through reduction in material use to minimize wastes
and to identify recycling opportunities.
The benefits of ECO auditing are:
❖ Identification of environmental risks.
❖ Use as a basis for the development of environmental management policies or
efforts to improve existing plans.
❖ Prevention of financial losses through the shutting down of an organization or
activity.
❖ Identifications of possible cost saving from energy conservation and waste
reduction, reuse and recycling.
❖ Prerequisite of an environmental audit report for use by an organization or
activity in dealing with environmental groups, government and the mass media.
❖ Provision of information required by insurance companies, financial institutions
and shareholders.
The Environmental Auditing (EA) is divided into three main steps:
✓ Pre-audit activities,
✓ Activities at the site/onsite,
✓ Post-audit activities.

A full EA in a pulp and paper industry should normally examine both Raw material
production and exploitation, Plant activities and Transportation. It is also commonly
recognized that the following elements need to be audited:
✓ Policy and principles,
✓ Systems,

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✓ Procedures,
✓ Practices,
✓ Performance.

and that EA is an internal management tool which can help companies to:
✓ collect data and better manage the environment,
✓ respond to government reporting requirements (if necessary) and,
✓ inform the public when needed.
Pre-audit Activities
This part of the audit is not particular to the pulp and paper industry. It must include
important steps such as:
Selection of the audit team members.
Scoping of the proposed audit. It is clear that the scope of the audit has to be defined
before it begins.
Collection of background information. In particular, previous audits and copies of all
registers where data are recorded and possible administration of a questionnaire to
prepare the visit at the site. Sent to the site manager.
Activities at the Site/Onsite audit
Identifying and understanding management control systems
“Internal controls might be normally incorporated in the facility's environmental
management system. They include the organizational monitoring and record keeping
procedures, formal planning documents such as plans for prevention and control of
accidental release, internal inspection programmes, physical controls such as
containment of release material, and a variety of other control system elements. The
auditing team gains information on all significant control systems through elements from
numerous sources through the use of formal questionnaires, observations and
interviews”. Following figure shows the various inputs and outputs to study. It is
important to add to the facility audit, forest and transportation controls.

Figure: Various inputs and outputs to be studied in the plant during an EA

Various simple check-lists can help the auditors at this stage. They can examine raw
material production and exploitation, industrial activities, transportation activities or
environmental management.

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Assessing management control systems

It involves evaluating the effectiveness of management control systems in achieving their
objectives. In some cases, regulations specify the design of control system. At this stage it
can be very useful to conduct a material balance.
The findings of the material balance are generally linked with characterization of waste
problems and identification of waste reduction possibilities.
Gathering audit evidence
In this step of the method, the team gathers evidence required to verify that the controls
do in practice provide the result intended.
Evaluating audit findings
After the individual controls have been tested and team members have reached
conclusions concerning individual elements of the control system, the team meets to
integrate and evaluate the findings and to assess the significance of each deficiency or
pattern of deficiencies in the overall functioning of the control system.
Reporting audit findings
The team may provide a written summary to the management which serves as an interim
report prior to preparation of the final report.”
Post-audit Activities
Post-audit activities include:
❖ The issue of a draft report to be commented by selected persons,
❖ The issue of the final report which highlights the requirements for action plan,
❖ The preparation and implementation of an action plan based on audit findings,
❖ The follow-up of the action plan,
❖ A new audit cycle at least 3 years later.

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