Aerobic Treatment Kinetics of Tannery Wastewater

Abstract

Tannery industry generates a significant quantum of effluent containing organic newlineand inorganic matters, both in solution and suspension forms, composed of flesh, protein, fatty materials, lime, sulphide, chromium and salts etc. Most of the effluent is biodegradable in nature and when it is allowed to discharge without proper treatment, it creates ground and surface water pollution. Therefore, to keep the environment clean and pollution free, it is necessary to treat this wastewater before it is discharged into environment. newlineExtensive literature survey has indicated that chrome tannery wastewater can be treated aerobically by mechanized or non-mechanized methods like oxidation pond or waste stabilization pond, aerated lagoon, oxidation ditch, activated sludge system. However, the efficiency of these systems has been newlinefound to be insufficient either due to improper action of microorganisms on the newlinesubstrate due to presence of toxic materials like sulphide and chromium or due to improper design of these systems with the little availability of the biokinetic parameters. Therefore, it is desirable to generate kinetic data for aerobic treatment of chrome tannery wastewater particularly under Indian conditions. newlineIn the present study, attempts have been made to pretreat the chrome tannery newlineeffluent to remove toxic materials like sulphide and chromium to the large extent by two different schemes and to generate the biokinetic parameters by treating the pretreated effluent by activated sludge system at different newlinetemperatures. newline