Resin factory effluent

Because of the processes carried out in the plant, the expected compounds in wastewater are formaldehyde, urea, and polymers of these compounds. The global effluent of this kind of factory is characterized by a high chemical oxygen demand (COD) (due mainly to formaldehyde), relatively high values of nitrogen (arising from urea and copolymers) and a low content of phosphorus and inorganic carbon. The main characteristics of the effluent of a resin factory are showed in Table 19.1. 

Characteristics of the Effluent from a Resin Factory Vidal et al.1 Garrido et al.2 Garrido et al.3 Eiroa et al.4... 

Eiroa, M., Biological Removal of Organic and Nitrogen Compounds Present in the Effluents of a Resin Factory (in Spanish), PhD thesis, University of A Coruna, 2004. 

Too many industries currently produce varying concentrations of heavy metal laden waste streams with undesired consequences for the environment. Increasing emphasis has been placed on environmental impact minimization. This has led to the search for natural, inexpensive materials able to remove metals from factory effluents. Heavy metal absorption capacities of modified cellulose materials are found to be significant and their levels of uptake are comparable, in many instances, to other naturally occurring absorbent materials and to commercial ion exchange type resins. Many of the modified cellulose adsorbents proved to be regenerable and reusable over a number of absorption/desorption cycles. This allows easy recovery of the absorbed heavy metals in a concentrated form [22]. 

Several reports have appeared in the literature on the photocatalytic treatment of industrial effluents such as textile effluents [82-84], rinse waters of pesticide containers [85], wastewater from a phenohc resin factory [86], distillation effluents from a pharmaceutical company [86], waters that are produced during recovery of natural gas and crude... 

The effluent generated during the production of the resins arises from different operations within the factory. The effluent of the production processes comes mainly from cleaning operations of reactors, storage tanks, filters from the towers of formaldehyde production, and the filters from the reactors. Another source for disposal comprises the spills occurring during the transfer of the resins from the reactors to the storage tanks and from these to the truck used to distribute them to other factories. 

A wide variety of xenobiotics can act as EDC (Fig. 8.5), bisphenol-A (BPA) and nonylphenol (NP) being the most extensively studied. They are widely dispersed in the environment, but they can mainly be found in wastewater effluents. BPA is used as a raw material for the production of polycarbonates and epoxy resins, and is present in the discharges of BPA producing factories, from installations that incorporate BPA into plastic, from leaching of plastic wastes and landfill sites. 

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