COAGULATION STUDIES ON KATTHA SOLIDIFIED FULL WASTEWATER

Abstract

Kattha is solidified water'extract of the heartwood of Khair—tree. The manufacture. of Kattha is a little known industry and few realise how important this industry is, with annual turn over of well over Rupees.20 crores. Today there are more than 24 full—fledged Kattha industries in India and its manUfa-cture is still largely carried on as cottage industry. Wastewater from Kattha industry is chafacterised by strong .colour (Red brown) and high COD. Unfortunately no attention has been given to pollutional hazards created by these wastes. Hence an attempt in this work is made to remove these pollutants by cOagulation. Wastewater samples were collected from a factory in Nazibabad (U.P.). Batch studies on laboratory scale were conducted to find the efficiency of various .coagulants normally used for the treatment of industrial wastewaters. From these studies, it was revealed that alum is an ecomical coagulant removing 90/. colour and 56/. COD. As for'as, both colour and COD removal efficiencies are concerned, Magnesium—Sulphate in ,conjunction with lime gave the best results (88% colour removal and 93% COD removal).