NUTRIENT REMOVAL

SYSTEMS IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY

A Partial Capstone Presented to the

Faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering

School of Engineering and Architecture

Saint Louis University

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering

By:

Bucag, Jeremy P.

Fernandez, Christian Patrick G.

Gapuz, Richard Anthony N.

Rivera, Leith F.

Cabanog, Charisma L.

Canao, Shania Caroline S.

Patacsil, Anika Adore O.

May 11, 2020

 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Wastewater from textile manufacturing is known for its soluble chemical oxygen demand

(sCOD) to be high (Freedman et al., 2005). Various studies have focused on upgrading the

biodegradability of azo dyes, an artificial dye (Freedman et al., 2005). Textile wastewater is typically

lacking in bioavailable nitrogen. A lack of nutrients with the presence of organics results in reduced

soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) (Freedman et al., 2005). Many facilities and industries

recognized this problem and alter their wastewater with nitrogen (Freedman et al., 2005).

Nitrogenous contaminations from industrial wastewaters and household are liable for advancing
the eutrophication impact in bodies of water (Tchobanoglous and Burton, 1991). Hence, the expulsion of
nitrogen mixes from wastewater is of expanding significance. Organic nitrogen removal includes two
successive procedures, for example, nitrification and denitrification. The nitrification converts ammonia
into a progressively nitrogen oxidized compound, which is nitrite or nitrate, which in the subsequent
denitrification phase is then transformed into nitrogen gas (Kuenen and Robertson, 1988). These two
procedures are usually performed in separate nitrification reactors under high-impact conditions, whereas
denitrification without oxygen predominates (Hong et al., 1999). The two procedures, however, are
correlative from different perspectives, for example, the previous one turns out into nitrite or nitrate,
which is a denitrification reactant, and decreases the pH produced by denitrification, while the latter
creates the alkalinity required by nitrification (Chen et al., 1998; Menoud et al., 1999).

A unified anaerobic vigorous system with Cosmo balls to act as production media for

microorganisms in the anaerobic system was used in this analysis to conquer the drawbacks of individual

unit types to create a simple and efficient expulsion framework for nitrogen (Haroun, 2005). The

appropriateness of combined anaerobic-aerobic procedures for the treatment of textile wastewater was

focused on nitrogen removal (Haroun, 2005).

 The textile wastewater source used was collected from different waste streams, bleaching, dyeing

processes, and printing, were combined and collected in a tank (Haroun, 2005). The alkaline pH range of

combined wastewater are ranging from 8.7-10.8 (Haroun, 2005). It was modified to have a neutral mark

by applying a concentrated H2SO4 solution (96% w / w) before feeding into reactors to reduce any

possible toxic or inhibitory effects on biomass (Wongwikraw, 2000; Yamasmit, 2000). An experimental

practice (Table 1) was used for the textile wastewater.

 CHAPTER II

COMBINED ANAEROBIC-AEROBIC SYSTEM

A. Experimental Set-up

A combination of anaerobic-aerobic system laboratory scale was promulgated to analyze the

effect of removal of nitrogen. Summation for the working volume of the anaerobic reactor was eighteen

liters and a total of two liters active sludge was fed and gathered. The reactor was made through PVC

having a dimension of 30 cm for the diameter and height. It was also packed with Cosmo balls in order to

be a media for the growth of microorganism.

Table 1 Textile wastewater characteristic used in current study

Parameter Value

pH 7.0

COD (mg/L) 500 ± 50.4

BOD5 (mg/L) 188 ± 15.2

TSS (mg/L) 64 ± 8.5

VSS (mg/L) 56 ± 4.2

“Nitrate and nitrite measurement in liquid effluents was conducted using the Standard Methods

for Water and Wastewater Analysis. Acclimation is often followed by the treatment of wastewater from

various industries to grow the microbial organism known as the carrier of inhibitory or toxic organic

compounds (Freedman et al., 2005) Application of the acclimatized biomass as a preliminary step yielded

higher amount in the removal of organic matter regardless of its potential to biodegrade is relatively low.
 Figure 1 Schematic drawing of combined anaerobic-aerobic system

In the average removal rate of NH 4-N between the two systems was measured as higher for

aerobic system amounting about 85% compared to anaerobic system which attained 60% as seen in

Figure 2. Moreover, nitrification process affects the final effluent minimally in the aerobic as was

assimilated to the result of anaerobic.

Figure 2 Removal of NH4 in the combined system

 “Osada et al. (1991) proved that the range must be about 14.0 in order to achieve a significant

COD / NH4 ratio for nitrogen removal at its limit. This results in a restriction of the efficiency of nitrogen

removal at highly influential COD / NH4 due to incomplete ammonia oxidation. Although ammonia was

obsolete due to oxidation during lower COD / NH4 ratios, insufficient denitrification carbon leads to

nitrite and nitrate concentration accumulation.

Figure 3 shows the data obtained in the combined method for nitrate conversion, whereby the

aerobic system prevailed twice as much as the anaerobic.

Figure 3 Conversion of ammonia to nitrate

 Figure 4 Chemical oxygen demand-ammonia and Ammonia-Nitrogen

Figure 5 Influence of pH of the combined system on nitrification

The denitrification rate in the experiment showed the strong dependency on nitrate concentration

as well as VSS in the experiment mentioned in Figure 6, while Figure 7 showed that the DO

concentration increased the rate of denitrification. From this accumulated data, it was deduced results are

comparable to Table 2, and so with the factual data which states that the DO will restrain the process of

denitrification in the event that it is largely present. This

phenomenon is because of the oxygen which makes the repression of the enzyme development of the

nitrate reductase or exist as electron acceptor that prevents the depletion of nitrate.

Figure 6 Denitrification rate

Figure 7 Effect of DO on denitrification

Table 2 Comparison of Dissolved oxygen on denitrification from previous studies

Figure 8 Effect of pH on denitrification in combined system

The maximum pH for denitrification rate of combined system was showed in Figure 8 as 6.6 and

7.2. Therefore, pH is not significant on nitrification when the denitrification process is within the pH

range of 6.5 – 8.0. In general, a neutral condition of the organism is preferred for the reason that

denitrification differs in according to type.

 CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

Treating ammonia nitrogen in wastewater of textile by the employment of combined anaerobic-

aerobic system is acceptable (Haroun, 2005). Various factors are to be managed satisfactorily to achieve

the optimum efficiency of the system (Haroun, 2005). Dissolved oxygen or DO is a very important

−
constraints to manage because the presence of escalation in DO concentration serves as acceptor in the

water which results the decrease of inert nitrogen removal (Haroun, 2005). The optimum removal of

ammonia-nitrogen was 85% while the maximum chemical oxygen demand-ammonia ratio for the

removal of 4 was about 7.2 (Haroun, 2005). Lastly, the pH was indicated to affect the nitrification process

slightly.
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