CH 416

Dr riCHa SrivaStava
Industrial waste generation and their characteristics, Effluent standards for disposal into
water bodies, sewer & land, Waste water characterization and process survey, Methods of
waste reduction such as volume & strength reduction, segregation, reuse, recycle material
conservation, recovery process optimization, neutralization, equalization, proportioning and
solidification.
Theories of waste water treatment, Pre-treatment, Biological treatment, Advanced
treatment & sludge handling.
Combined treatment of raw industrial waste with sewage, Common effluent treatment for
industrial estates, Selection procedure for physical, chemical & biological methods of
industrial waste treatment, Management of industrial waste from small-scale industries.
Gross polluting industries, Detailed considerations of waste produced from different
industries, Nature & quantity of wastes, their characteristics, usual methods of waste
management & treatment methods.
e-Wastes, Problem and solutions, Regulatory authorities, regulations and compliance.
 For example, with expanding industrial
growth, the city of Kanpur has not been able
to cope with its industrial pollution. Kanpur
is now listed as the most polluted city along
Ganga, and

each day the city produces nine

million liters of industrial waste,
mostly consisting of wastewater
from tanneries, much of which is
dumped illegally directly into Ganga
without treatment.
Sources of Industrial Waste
Industrial wastewater means used up water from industries.
The characteristics of waters depend on the nature of industry.
Generally pollution properties are:
Physical pollution - Temperature ,Colour ,Odour ,Taste ,Solids
Chemical pollution - pH, Acidity, Dissolved salts
Organic pollution - Organic Matter
Biological pollution -Biological Activities
The industrial wastes either join the streams or other natural water bodies directly,
or are emptied into the municipal sewers.
These wastes affect the normal life of stream or the normal functioning of
sewerage and sewage treatment plant.
Streams can assimilate certain amount of wastes before they are "polluted".
Wastewaters are usually classified as industrial wastewater or the domestic
wastewater (sewage or munciple wastewater).
•Characteristics of industrial wastewater vary greatly from industry to industry and
within industries also there are variations in the quality depending upon the
processes, for example quality of wastewater coming out from a cooling tower will
be quite different then the wastewater coming out from any chemical process on
the other hand there are limited variations in the quality of sewage depending upon
season, sewerage system, lifestyle of people etc.

It can contain
non-biodegradable waste such as heavy metals, pesticides, plastic etc. and
biodegradable compounds such as paper, leather, wool etc.
Industrial wastewater can be toxic, reactive, carcinogenic or ignitable. Therefore,
without proper treatment and management strategies, the discharging of the waste
into water bodies can pose dreadful environmental and health effects.
Characteristics of Industrial Waste Water
• too high a proportion of suspended solids, dissolved organics and inorganic solids,
BOD, alkalinity or acidity.
• raw materials,
• process chemicals,
• final products,
• process intermediates,
• process by products,
• oils, and impurities in raw material and
• process chemicals.
Three alternatives for the disposal of the industrial wastes:
• 1. The direct disposal of the waste into the streams without any treatment.
• 2. Discharge of the wastes into the municipal sewers for combined treatment.
• 3. Separate treatment of the industrial wastes before discharging the same into the
water bodies.
The selection of particular process
depends on various factors:
1. Self Purification Capacity of the Streams.
2. Permissible limits of the Pollutants in the
water bodies.
3. Technical advantages if any in mixing the
industrial wastes with domestic sewage.
Characteristics of the Industrial Wastes:
Inorganic salts:
Pollutants in industrial Waste Water and their effects
•Organic Substances: These deplete DO of stream and impose great load on
secondary treatment unit.
•Inorganic substances: These includes carbonates, chlorides, nitrogen, phosphorous
etc.. They cause eutrophication of water bodies, increases dissolved solids content
and can also be harmful to aquatic life.
•Acids and alkalies: These generally affects the aquatic life of receiving water body.
They also cause serious problem in operation of treatment units.
•Toxic Substances: These includes cyanides, Sulphides, acetylene, phenols, heavy
metals, ammonia etc. due to which flora and fauna of receiving waters is greatly
affected. The may cause problems in the biological treatments.
•Colour producing substances:
•They impart objectionable color in the receiving water bodies.
•Oils: They hinder self purification as they remains floating on the surface and cause
problem in oxygen diffusion
Characteristics of industrial Wastewater
Pot. Chloroplatinate and cobalt chloride 1mg/L
Inorganic salts:
cause water to be "hard" and make a stream undesirable for industrial, municipal and
agricultural usage.
Salt laden waters deposit scale on municipal water- distribution pipelines,
increasing resistance to flow and lowering the overall capacity of the lines.
Under proper environmental conditions, inorganic salts especially nitrogen and
phosphorous induce the growth of microscopic plant life (algae) in surface waters.
Acids and /or Alkalis:
make a stream undesirable not only recreational uses such as swimming and
boating, but also for propagation of fish and other aquatic life.
High concentrations of sulfuric acid, sufficient to lower the pH below 7.0 when free
chlorine is present, have been reported to cause eye irritation to swimmers.
A low pH may cause corrosion in air conditioning equipment and a pH greater than
9.5 enhance laundering.
Organic matter: Organic Matter exhausts the oxygen resources of rivers and creates
unpleasant tastes, odours and general septic conditions.
It is generally conceded that the critical range for fish survival is 3to 4 mg/l of D.O
Suspended solids: deplete oxygen in the river water.
Fish often die because of a sudden lowering of the oxygen content of a stream.
Visible sludge creates unsightly conditions and destroys the use of a river for
recreational purposes.
These solids also increase the turbidity of the watercourse.
Floating Solids and liquids:
These includes oils, greases, and other materials which float on the surface,
they not only make the river unsightly but also obstruct passage of light
through the water, retarding the growth of vital plant food.
Some specific objections to oil in streams are that it
• Interferes with natural reaeration
• Is toxic to certain species of fish and aquatic life
• Causes trouble in conventional water treatment processes by imparting tastes
and odours to water and coating sand filters with a tenacious film.
The Characteristics of Waste water of
Some Industries
•Dairy Industry
Various operations in a dairy industry may
include, pasteurization, bottling,
preparation of butter, cheese, milk
powder etc. Wastewater from dairy
industry consists primarily of dilution of
milk and its products which impart a very
high BOD, some times up to 1000 mg/l.
The wastewater may also contain
detergents, germicides, and other
chemicals.
Wastewater of textile industry was found to contains a high degree of pollutants with
high TdS and suspended solids. The wastewater is highly colored and viscous due to
dyestuff and suspended solids respectively. Sodium is only major cation due to high
consumption of sodium salts in processing units.
Final project report should be prepared in MS-word format, (Max 6-8 pages for
2 students).
Font: Times new Roman
Font size: 14 for headings, 12 for text
Spacing: 2
Matter alignment: Justified
First page should have Topic of the project
Name and roll number of students
Final submission: 22.04.2024 (complete pdf file of the report) via mail to
[email protected]
Minimum 2 students in a group, max. 4 (12-14 pages)

search the quantity of waste of the following industries

–distillery,
–paper/pulp
–tannery,
–sugar,
–textile,
–steel,
–oil refinery.
1Enlist the characteristics of wastewater of sugar industry, and oil refinery
Waste Characterization
A. Through Process Knowledge
A waste characterization begins with an understanding of the industrial
processes that generate a waste.