TREATMENT OF PTA WASTEWATER BY USING BIOLOGICAL SEQUENCING BATCH REACTOR (SBR) AND ADSORPTION

Abstract

In an era of sustainable development with growing industrial activities, there is a threat to global environmental quality and an increasing pressure on world resources most importantly on drinking water. So the wastewater treatment plants are under pressure to deal with environmental challenges in form of wastewater resulted from process industries as well as local household areas. These treatment plants have to be optimized in their operations keeping in mind ecological concerns by implementing latest technology and incorporating research to meet environmental agreements and regulatory standards set by EPA, CPCB and other global and local agencies for the prevention of water and air pollution from waste streams. Purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) are the most widely used xylene-based chemicals in petrochemical industry. The most well-known application of PTA is in the manufacture of polyethylene terephthalate bottles that are widely used for carbonated drinks. World PTA consumption capacity is estimated to grow at the rate of 7% per year during the years 2008-2013.During the manufacturing of PTA, various pollutants are emitted in environment and a major portion is released in the water environment. Therefore, the petrochemical (PTA) wastewater must be treated effectively so as to meet the discharge quality standards as these standards are going to be stricter in near future and the best available technology and information is to be used for designing the new treatment plants and to renovate the existing ones. The completed dissertation work was planned to facilitate a combined pretreatment-secondary treatment tool that will be used to address wastewater treatment priorities in biological treatment of PTA effluent in SBR.