4.

5 Waste water treatment

The process of chemical dilution may have an output of acidic or basic waste waters either form
the process equipment washing or from spillages. Thus these wastes have to be treated to a point
where they do not affect the environment they are discharged into.

There are wide variety of ways to treat industrial wastewaters, but the selection of which
treatment method to use depends on factors such as;

 What potential hazardous (pollutant) compounds/chemicals the waste water has,

 What the acceptable discharge limit for these compounds/chemicals is in the country, and
 Which available system consumes less energy and also financially economic to achieve
the treatment required

Thus, keeping the above stated in mind, the best available system to treat the effluent wastes
from a chemical dilution plant involving the dilution of Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) and
hydrochloric acid is an acid-base waste neutralization system. This is because the chemicals in
issue, which are Sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid, can neutralize each other without an
addition of further chemicals or additives. The equation below shows the neutralization reaction
of these two chemicals which produces sodium chloride (common salt) and water;

HCl + NaOH -> NaCl + H2O

The system which is used to neutralize these two waste streams is shown in the figure below;

Fig: Acidic and Alkaline Wastewaters Neutralization system

The process of neutralization involves the following:

 Collection of wastewater resulting from the regeneration of various ion exchange

systems
 Combining and mixing wastewater streams
 Measuring the pH of the combined wastewater streams
 Adjusting the pH of the wastewater so it is within acceptable limits for discharge to drain

The system should incorporate neutralization tanks, pumps and pipes as shown in the figure
below;

Fig: Batch neutralization system for Acidic and Alkaline Wastewaters Neutralization