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Nat. Env. & Poll. Tech.
Website: www.neptjournal.com
Received: 23-4-2014
Accepted: 22-5-2014
Key Words:
CETP
Zero liquid discharge
RO plant
Evaporators
ABSTRACT
Perundurai Common Effluent Treatment Plant is one of the front runners in implementing 'Zero Liquid Discharge' concept in the treatment and management of effluents from a cluster of textile processing industries. The effluent is segregated into low TDS (< 2100 mg/L) and high TDS (> 2100 mg/L) streams at the individual member units itself and sent to treatment plant through separate pipelines. Low TDS effluent is subjected to primary, secondary and tertiary treatments to recover 77.7 % of the effluent for reuse by the member units. High TDS effluent is treated through Multiple Effect Evaporators and solar evaporation pans or salt recovery plant and converted into solid wastes. Out of a total pollution load of 48 kg/m^sup 3^ of effluent, only 6.0 kg/m^sup 3^ is removed through the treatment and the remaining is transferred to solid wastes. The capital investment to implement this scheme comes to Rs. 67,018/m^sup 3^ with recurring expenditure of Rs. 90/m^sup 3^.
INTRODUCTION
Textile is one of the oldest and most important industrial sectors of the world in terms of employment and foreign exchange earnings but equally synonyms with high pollution and environmental degradation due to the presence of toxic/carcinogenic dyes and chemicals in its wastewater streams (Nosheen et al. 2000, Villegas-Navarro et al. 2001, Ghorishi & Haghighi 2003). Removal of these pollutants is a daunting task often met with failures which lead to severe water pollution problems in many parts of India including Tirupur and Erode in the state of Tamilnadu (Senthilnathan & Azeez 1999). Driven by legislation coupled with public outcry and judicial activism, Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) concept started gaining ground in recent years to overcome the pollution problems (Vishnu et al. 2007, Gozalvez-Zafrilla et al. 2008, Ramesh Kumar et al. 2009). This concept is very uncommon in India until few years back when many Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) located in Tamilnadu started incorporating/implementing ZLD due to its difficulty in meeting the standards for discharge of industrial effluents into natural aquatic systems. Present study deals with performance of one such scheme implemented by a CETP located at SIPCOT Industrial area (Perundurai) near Erode in Tamilnadu.