TREATMENT OF AGRO BASED PAPER MILL EFFLUENT USING ELECTROCOAGULATION

Abstract

Paper industry consumes large amount of water and generate an equal amount of wastewater having high BOD, COD, pH, turbidity, high temperature, color etc. The environmental pollution problem for agro based paper mills is, however, different from the large integrated paper mills due to lack of recovery systems and use of short fiber. Some of the conventional methods of treatments like activated sludge, trickling filters, stabilization lagoon, etc., are well known. However because of the color and presence of refractory organics, physico-chemical methods are being used in the polishing stage to meet the stringent environmental standards. Amongst various tertiary treatment processes, coagulation using lime, alum etc. are also being used. Treatment of Paper mill wastewater from an Agro based Paper Mill by electrocoagulation is investigated. Laboratory scale Electrocoagulation experiments have been conducted using Aluminum electrodes, as anode and cathode for removal of COD and color. It has been found to be very effective in the COD and color reduction. Up to 90 %COD and 99 % color removal was achieved. Effects of various operating parameters like pH, number of electrodes, current density, electrode submergence, inter electrode spacing for electrocoagulation have been studied