MLSS development and treatability study in specialty chemical industry

This industry located in the heart of Maharashtra is a leading manufacturer of specialty chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients like aripiprazole intermediates and montelukast intermediates. The operating engineers of this industry were perturbed by surging COD and TDS levels. This industry used a ready biomass from a pharmaceutical industry for reducing effluent parameters. However, it was incompetent at treating wastewater, which could not meet the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) guidelines. 

The initial approach and challenges 

After complete study of plant through questionnaire and on-site visit and discussion with EHS team, our expert understood numerous challenges to be addressed. Key issues are high COD levels, elevated TDS level and poor biomass formation.

Treatability study 

Before planning a treatment scheme, it was crucial to perform a treatability study in order to understand the wastewater characteristics and devise an appropriate treatment regime specific to their effluent. Organica’s unique wastewater treatability study ‘BioSure’ is a laboratory scale trial that confirms the suitability of the bacterial consortium present in our product and their development in the effluent. These trial reports cannot be related to the actual product performance on plant scale but can only provide a clear indication about whether given microbes are capable of growing in such a high TDS without compromising reduction of pollutants in the effluent. Microscopic analysis reports of the sample revealed satisfactory growth and development of our microbes in the effluent. After this study, we decided to go with treatment regime using Cleanmaxx.

CleanMaxx: One stop solution for all wastewater treatment needs 

Our team of researchers has developed this unique biotech formulation, CleanMaxx, which has proven to be extremely beneficial in solving the most challenging wastewater problems over the years. CleanMaxx is a consortium of beneficial and robust microbes, isolated from nature. The microbes secrete effective enzymes which are completely natural and safe to humans, plants, and animals. These microbes are very efficient in degrading organic, refractory wastewater pollutants even under high TDS. Our team of experts planned to move ahead strategically for maintaining a transparency between us and the industry regarding the course of action. Initially there was a laboratory scale study, followed by a pilot plant study for building their confidence on our technology and finally the treatment was implemented on the actual wastewater treatment plant.

Observations 

We observed steady growth in MLSS levels over a period of one month (Table 2). Increased MLSS levels directly helped in reducing outlet COD from 1,246 ppm to 226 ppm over a period of one month (Table 1).

COD/BOD Reduction:

Table 1 – Reduction in COD levels observed after CleanMaxx application 

Table 2: MLSS Development during commissioning 

Table 3: Final reduction after biological treatment 

Result 

• We observed the COD reduction of 81.86 percent. 
• Desired MLVSS: MLSS ratio of 0.7 was achieved.

Conclusion 

After using our product, the efficiency of this industry’s effluent treatment plant improved tremendously. The overall plant was stabilised quickly, and the outlet parameters met the norms of Pollution Control Board successfully.

Article courtesy: Organica Biotech Pvt Ltd