Control and

Management of
Industrial Wastewater
 Industrial Waste
• Industrial wastewaters are effluents that result from human activities which are
associated with raw-material processing and manufacturing. These wastewater
streams arise from washing, cooking, cooling, heating, extraction, reaction,
separation, conveyance, and quality control resulting in product rejection.
• Water pollution occurs when potential pollutants in these streams reach certain
amounts causing undesired alterations to a receiving waterbody. While
industrial wastewaters from such processing or manufacturing sites may include
some domestic sewage, the latter is not the major component.
• Domestic sewage may be present because of washrooms and
hostels provided for workers at the processing or
manufacturing facility. Examples of industrial wastewaters
include those arising from chemical, pharmaceutical,
electrochemical, electronics, petrochemical, and food
processing industries. Examples of agro-industrial
wastewaters include those arising from industrial-scale animal
husbandry, slaughterhouses, fisheries, and seed oil processing.
Industrial wastewaters have very varied compositions depending on
the type of industry and materials processed. Some of these
wastewaters can be organically very strong, easily biodegradable or
largely inorganic. This means TSS, BOD5 and COD values may be in
the tens of thousands mg L−1. Because of these very high organic or
inorganic concentrations, industrial wastewaters may also be severely
nutrients deficient. Unlike sewage, pH values well beyond the
range of 6–9 are also frequently encountered. Such wastewaters may
also be associated with high concentrations of dissolved metal salts.
Nature of Industrial waste
The nature of a particular industrial waste depend on the nature of
industry.
• 1- BOD is higher than ordinary waste.
• 2- Flow is uncertain, variations are high
• 3- Number of pollutants is high
• 4- Temperature variations
• 5- acidic or alkaline
• 6- radioactive
Nature of Industrial waste
• The following table gives a comparison between the typical range of
BOD and S.S. load for industrial and municipal domestic wastewater.
Nature of Industrial waste
Wastewater contaminants
• The important contaminants of concern in wastewater treatment are;

• 1- Suspended solids 2- Organic waste

• 3- Inorganic waste 4- Heavy metal
• 5- Nutrients (N,P)
• 6- Dissolved inorganics (Ca, Na, Sulfates)
• Waste water treatment is carried out to remove these contaminants
based on different standards.
Characteristics of wastewater
• Just like domestic waste, there are three major characteristics of industrial
wastewater;
• 1- Physical
i) Total solids ii) Odoriii) Temperature
iv) Turbidity v) Color
• 2- Chemical
i) Organics
a) Fats, oil & grease b) Surfactants c) VOCs
d) Phenols f) Pesticides and agro chemicals
 Characteristics of wastewater
ii) Inorganics
a) pH b) Alkalinity c) Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulphur
d) Metals (Ni, Mn, Pb, Cr, Cd, Zn, Cu, Fe, Hg)
• 3- Biological
i) Pathogens ii) Molds & fungi
 Treatment methods
• The treatment method for industrial wastes also depends upon
their characteristics. In general, treatment adopted should be such
that it recovers some useful substances from the industrial waste.
• For the purpose of treatment, the industrial waste may be broadly
classified into three categories; wastes of animal origin, waste of
mineral origin, waste of vegetable origin.
Classification of Industrial waste
 Treatment of industrial waste
Following methods are adopted for treatment of industrial waste:
1- Aerobic biological oxidation 2- Filtration
3- Anaerobic digestion 4- Incineration
5- Chemical coagulation 6- Lagooning
7-Chemical oxidation 8- Screening
9- Chlorination 10- Sedimentation
11- Deionisation 12- Spray irrigation
 Treatment Methods Classification
The contaminants in wastewater are removed by physical, chemical, and
biological means.
• Physical Unit Operations
• Treatment methods in which the application of physical forces predominates
are known as physical unit operations. e.g Screening, mixing, flocculation,
sedimentation, flotation, filtration.
• Chemical Unit Processes
• Treatment methods in which the removal or conversion of contaminants is
brought about by the addition of chemicals or by other chemical reactions
are known as chemical unit processes.
 Treatment Methods Classification
• Precipitation, adsorption, and disinfection are the most common
examples used in chemical unit processing.
• Biological Unit Processes
• Treatment methods in which the removal of contaminants is brought
about by biological activity are known as biological unit processes.
Biological treatment is used primarily to remove the biodegradable
organic substances. Basically, these substances are converted into gases
that can escape to the atmosphere and into biological cell tissue that can
be removed by settling.