Wastewater characteristics inorganics

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. 

The organic chemical industry, the food processing industry, the pulp and paper industry, the textile industry, and the petroleum industry are important industries that produce organic process wastes. Unlike inorganic process wastes, they contain dissolved and insoluble matter in the main wastewater stream thus, they are more difficult to handle for disposal. They have its characteristic biological problems and spontaneous interaction with the surrounding environment, particularly, under high solar radiation. 

Municipal wastewater normally contains approximately 99.9% water. The remaining materials (as described earlier) include suspended and dissolved organic and inorganic matter as well as microorganisms. These materials make up the physical, chemical, and biological qualities that are characteristic of municipal and industrial waters. Each of these three qualities are briefly described below. 

Ion-selective membrane electrodes as amperometric and potentiometric biosensors cannot be successfully used for ion monitoring in water. Their main characteristic is detection of an ion in the sample continuously and without any prior separation. The sampling process for a solid sample is reduced at its dissolution in distilled water. Due to the complexity of the matrix for wastewater or for seawater samples, there are a number of interfering inorganic and organic ions. Using biosensors for water analysis, one can obtain the total quantity of organic substances that are contained in a class it is practically impossible to discriminate the content of every compound from within the same class. 

When spent cooking liquor recovery is not practiced, the wastewaters may be acichc (pH in the range of 2 - 3) and have higji concentrations of dissolved organics and inorganics. The solubilized organics and the type of cooking liquor will determine the characteristics of the wastewater. 

The characteristics of wastewater drawn from storage tanks will depend on the quality of the crude oil stored and may contain dissolved inorganics, oil, and suspended solids. The steam condensate from the overhead accumulator can be characterized as having oil, sulfides, mercaptans, and phenol. If barometric condensers are used in vacuum distillation, the condenser water will have very stable oil in emulsion. However, if the barometric condensers are replaced by surface condensers, the condenser water will be essentially free of oil. 

Characteristics of Polypropylene Plant Wastewater The characteristics of propylene plant wastewater as analysed by the petrochemical plant are presented in Table 6.21. The waste-water consisted of both organic and inorganic substances and was slightly acidic in nature (pH 5.3). Its COD (3520 mg/L) and BOD (1132 mg/L) were very high and the parameters were most predominant. 

---