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Industrial Waste Water Quality Standard

Introduction
Water is a transparent fluid which forms the world's streams, lakes, oceans and rain, and is the
major constituent of the fluids of living things. As a chemical compound, a water molecule
contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms that are connected by covalent bonds. Water is a
liquid at standard ambient temperature and pressure, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid
state, ice; and gaseous state, steam (water vapor).Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface. It is
vital for all known forms of life. On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's water is found in seas and oceans,
1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small
fraction in other large water bodies, and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid and
liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation. Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is
freshwater, and 98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is
in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth's freshwater (0.003%)
is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products. Wastewater is liquid waste
discharged by domestic residences, commercial properties, industry, agriculture, which often
contains some contaminants that result from the mixing of wastewater from different sources.
Based on its origin wastewater can be classed as sanitary, commercial, industrial, agricultural or
surface runoff. Term wastewater need to be separated from the term sewage, sewage is subset of
wastewater that is contaminated with feces or urine though many people use term sewage referring
to any waste water. Water Standard can provide a reliable supply of process water for construction-
site demands, with flexible contract durations to meet short or long term needs. lmost every
industrial process requires water and water demand grows in parallel with increases in the global
industrial base. These sectors include power generation, refineries, construction, agriculture,
metals and mining. In these sectors, large volumes of treated water are involved in the production
process. Companies are increasingly evaluating their water footprint and ways to access, utilize
and reuse water more efficiently. For application in industrial sectors, Water Standards mobile
and power independent vessel-based solutions provide a reliable and cost-competitive alternative,
capable of meeting water quality and quantity needs as a site-specific or regional solution. Water
Standard can comply with varing water quality and quantity requirements and has the ability to
ramp up or down to meet fluctuations in water demand. Water Standard also has the design and
operational flexibility to meet a construction sites wastewater treatment requirements. Water
Standard can also design to provide a construction site with additional power, if needed.


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Sources of Industrial Wastewater
Iron and Steel industry: The production of iron from its ores involves powerful reduction
reactions in blast furnaces. Cooling waters are inevitably contaminated with products especially
ammonia and cyanide. Production of coke from coal in coking plants also requires water cooling
and the use of water in by-products separation. Contamination of waste streams includes
gasification products such as benzene, naphthalene, anthracene, cyanide, ammonia, phenols,
cresols together with a range of more complex organic compounds known collectively as
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).The conversion of iron or steel into sheet, wire or rods
requires hot and cold mechanical transformation stages frequently employing water as a lubricant
and coolant. Contaminants include hydraulic oils, tallow and particulate solids. Final treatment of
iron and steel products before onward sale into manufacturing includes pickling in strong mineral
acid to remove rust and prepare the surface for tin or chromium plating or for other surface
treatments such as galvanization or painting. The two acids commonly used are hydrochloric acid
and sulfuric acid. Wastewaters include acidic rinse waters together with waste acid. Although
many plants operate acid recovery plants (particularly those using hydrochloric acid), where the
mineral acid is boiled away from the iron salts, there remains a large volume of highly acid ferrous
sulfate or ferrous chloride to be disposed of. Many steel industry wastewaters are contaminated by
hydraulic oil, also known as soluble oil.
Mines and Quarries: Mine wastewater effluent in Peru, with neutralized pH from tailing runoff.
The principal waste-waters associated with mines and quarries are slurries of rock particles in
water. These arise from rainfall washing exposed surfaces and haul roads and also from rock
washing and grading processes. Volumes of water can be very high, especially rainfall related
arisings on large sites. Some specialized separation operations, such as coal washing to separate
coal from native rock using density gradients, can produce wastewater contaminated by fine
particulate haematite and surfactants. Oils and hydraulic oils are also common contaminants.
Wastewater from metal mines and ore recovery plants are inevitably contaminated by the minerals
present in the native rock formations. Following crushing and extraction of the desirable materials,
undesirable materials may become contaminated in the wastewater. For metal mines, this can
include unwanted metals such as zinc and other materials such as arsenic. Extraction of high value
metals such as gold and silver may generate slimes containing very fine particles in where physical
removal of contaminants becomes particularly difficult.
Food Industry: Wastewater generated from agricultural and food operations has distinctive
characteristics that set it apart from common municipal wastewater managed by public or private
sewage treatment plants throughout the world: it is biodegradable and nontoxic, but that has high
concentrations of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids (SS).
[1]
The
constituents of food and agriculture wastewater are often complex to predict due to the differences
in BOD and pH in effluents from vegetable, fruit, and meat products and due to the seasonal nature
of food processing and post harvesting. Processing of food from raw materials requires large
volumes of high grade water. Vegetable washing generates waters with high loads of particulate
matter and some dissolved organic matter. It may also contain surfactants.


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Animal slaughter and processing produces very strong organic waste from body fluids, such as
blood, and gut contents. This wastewater is frequently contaminated by significant levels of
antibiotics and growth hormones from the animals and by a variety of pesticides used to control
external parasites. Insecticide residues in fleeces is a particular problem in treating waters
generated in wool processing. Processing food for sale produces wastes generated from cooking
which are often rich in plant organic material and may also contain salt, flavorings, coloring
material and acids or alkali. Very significant quantities of oil or fats may also be present.
Pulp and Paper Industry: Effluent from the pulp and paper industry is generally high in
suspended solids and BOD. Standalone paper mills using imported pulp may only require simple
primary treatment, such as sedimentation or dissolved air flotation. Increased BOD or chemical
oxygen demand (COD) loadings, as well as organic pollutants, may require biological treatment
such as activated sludge or up flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors. For mills with high inorganic
loadings like salt, tertiary treatments may be required, either general membrane treatments like
ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis or treatments to remove specific contaminants, such as nutrients.
Complex Organic Chemicals Industry: A range of industries manufacture or use complex
organic chemicals. These include pesticides, pharmaceuticals, paints and dyes, petrochemicals,
detergents, plastics, paper pollution, etc. Waste waters can be contaminated by feedstock materials,
by-products, product material in soluble or particulate form, washing and cleaning agents,
solvents and added value products such as plasticizers. Treatment facilities that do not need control
of their effluent typically opt for a type of aerobic treatment, i.e. aerated lagoons.
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Nuclear Industry: The waste production from the nuclear and radio-chemicals industry is dealt
with as radioactive waste.
Water Treatment: Many industries have a need to treat water to obtain very high quality water
for demanding purposes. Water treatment produces organic and mineral sludges from filtration
and sedimentation. Ion exchange using natural or synthetic resins removes calcium, magnesium
and carbonate ions from water, replacing them with hydrogen and hydroxyl ions. Regeneration of
ion exchange columns with strong acids and alkalis produces a wastewater rich in hardness ions
which are readily precipitated out, especially when in admixture with other wastewater.





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Water Standards
Some of the main parameters listed in the water quality discharge standards are briefly discussed
here to give a working knowledge of what they are and why they are important.
Colour: Although colour is not included in the Environment Conservation Rules (1997), it is an
issue in dye house effluent because unlike other pollutants it is so visible. Reducing colour is
therefore important for the public perception of a factory. Consequently, international textile
buyers are increasingly setting discharge standards for colour. However, as a health and
environmental issue colour is less of a concern than many of the other parameters.
BOD and COD: Measurement of the oxidisable organic matter in wastewater is usually achieved
through determining the 5-day biological oxygen demand (BOD), the chemical oxygen demand
(COD) and total organic carbon (TOC). BOD is a measure of the quantity of dissolved oxygen
used by microoganisms in the biochemical oxidation of the organic matter in the wastewater over
a 5-day period at 20 C. The test has its limitations but it still used extensively and is useful for
determining approximately how much oxygen will be removed from water by an effluent or how
much may be required for treatment and is therefore important when estimating the size of the
ETP needed. COD is often used as a substitute for BOD as it only takes a few hours not five days
to determine. COD is a measure of the oxygen equivalent of the organic material chemically
oxidised in the reaction and is determined by adding dichromate in an acid solution of the
wastewater.
TDS and TSS: Wastewater can be analyzed for total suspended solids (TSS) and total dissolved
solids (TDS) after removal of coarse solids such as rags and grit. A sample of wastewater is filtered
through a standard filter and the mass of the residue is used to calculate TSS. Total solids (TS) is
found by evaporating the water at a specified temperature. TDS is then calculated by subtracting
TSS from TS.
Metals: A number of metals are listed in the national environmental quality standards for industrial
wastewater, including cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc. Many
metals, which are usually only available naturally in trace quantities in the environment, can be
toxic to humans, plants, fish and other aquatic life. Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen, Nitrate and
Ammonia. These parameters are all used as a measure of the nutrients present in the wastewater,
as a high nutrient content can result in excessive plant growth in receiving water bodies, subsequent
oxygen removal and the death of aquatic life.
pH: pH is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions in the wastewater and gives an
indication of how acid or alkaline the wastewater is. This parameter is important because aquatic
life such as most fish can only survive in a narrow pH range between roughly pH 6-9.
Sulphur and Sulphide: Textile dyeing uses large quantities of sodium sulphate and some other
sulphur containing chemicals. Textile wastewaters will therefore contain various sulphur

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compounds and once in the environment sulphate is easily converted to sulphide when oxygen has
been removed by the BOD of the effluents. This is a problem because hydrogen sulphide can be
formed which is a very poisonous gas, it also has an unpleasant smell of rotten eggs. The presence
of sulphides in effluents can interfere with biological treatment processes.
Oil and Grease: This includes all oils, fats and waxes, such as kerosene and lubricating oils. Oil
and grease cause unpleasant films on open water bodies and negatively affect aquatic life. They
can also interfere with biological treatment processes and cause maintenance problems as they
coat the surfaces of components of ETPs.
Source: Schedule 10, Rule-13, Environment Conservation Rules, 1997 (Page 3132 - 3134 of
the Bangladesh Gazette of 28 August 1997)


SI. NO. Parameter Unit Inland
Surface
Water
Public
Sewer
From
Secondary
Treatment
Plant
Irrigable
Land
Ammonia cal
nitrogen
(as elementary N)
mg/l

50 75 75
Ammonia (as free
ammonia)

mg/l

5 0.05 0.2
Arsenic (as As)

mg/l

0.2 0.05 0.2
BOD at 20 C

mg/l

50 250 100
Boron

mg/l

2 2 2
Cadmium (as Cd)

mg/l

0.05 0.5 0. 5
Chloride

mg/l

600 600 600
Chromium (as total
Cr)

mg/l

0.5 0.1 0.1
COD


mg/l

200 400 400
Chromium (as
hexavalent Cr)
mg/l

0.5 1 1

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Copper (as Cu)

mg/l

0.5 3 3
Dissolved oxygen
(DO)

mg/l

4.5-8 4.5-8 4.5-8
(EC) mg/l

1200 1200 1200
Total dissolved
solids

mg/l

2100 2100 2100
Flouride (as F)

mg/l

2 15 10
Sulfide (as S)

mg/l

1 2 2
Iron (as Fe)

mg/l

2 2 2
Total kjeldahl
nitrogen (as N)

mg/l

100 100 100
Lead (as Pb)

mg/l

0.1 1 0.1
Manganese (asMn) mg/l

5 5 5
Mercury (as Hg)

mg/l

0.01 0.01 0.01
Nickel (as Ni)

mg/l

1 2 1
Nitrate (as
elementary N)

mg/l

10 - 10
Oil and grease

mg/l

10 20 10
Phenolic
compounds
(as C5 H5 OH)
mg/l

1 5 1
Dissolved
phosphorus (as P)

mg/l

8 8 15
Radioactive
substance

mg/l

- - -
pH
mg/l

6-9 6-9 6-9
Selenium (as Se) mg/l 0.05 0.05 0.05

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Zinc (as Zn)

mg/l

5 10 10
Total dissolved
solids

mg/l

2100 2100 2100
Temperature

mg/l

40 40 40
Suspended solids

mg/l

150 500 200
Cyanide (As Cn)

mg/l

0.1 2 0.2

Table-1: Bangladesh Standards for Industrial Project Effluent according to EQSB of DOE





Chart-1: Inland Surface Water, Public Sewer from Secondary Treatment Plant and Irrigable Land



0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4
Industrial Wastewater Quality Standard
Series 1 Series 2 Series 3

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Source: Arsenic Filters for Groundwater in Bangladesh: Toward a Sustainable Solution
Author: Abul Hussam, Sad Ahamed, and Abul K.M. Munir
Constituent EPA (MCL) WHO Guideline Bangladeshi Standard
Arsenic (total) g/L 10 10 50
Arsenic (III) g/L - - -
Iron (total) mg/L 0.3 0.3 0.3 (1.0)
pH 6.58.5 6.58.5 6.58.5
Sodium mg/L - 200 -
Calcium mg/L - - 75 (200)
Manganese mg/L 0.5 0.10.5 0.1 (0.5)
Aluminum mg/L 0.050.2 0.2 0.1(0.2)
Barium mg/L 2.0 0.7 1.0
Chloride mg/L 250 250 200 (600)
Phosphate mg/L - - 6
Sulfate mg/L - - 100
Silicate mg/L - - -
Table-2: Water Quality of EPA, World Health Organization (WHO), and Bangladeshi Standards.


Chart-2: EPA, World Health Organization (WHO), and Bangladeshi Standards
4.3
2.5
3.5
4.5
2.4
4.4
1.8
2.8
2 2
3
5
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4
Industrial Waste Water Standards
Series 1 Series 2 Series 3

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Conclusion
Wastewater, otherwise known as effluent, as a bi-product of their production. The effluent contains
several pollutants, which can be removed with the help of an effluent treatment plant (ETP). The
clean water can then be safely discharged into the environment. In Bangladesh due to textile
dyeing industries, the main negative impact afflicting the local environment severely is the hazards
caused by dye effluents, which contain both chemical and organic pollutants. These can be highly
toxic. This Research has found that the volume of such effluents often exceeds acceptable
standards. Though the volume of effluents from individual small-scale dyers might be small, the
concentration of pollutants is generally high. The impact is significant where several producers are
located at one place and discharge effluents into the same body of water. Large-scale dyers on the
other hand generate greater volumes of effluent but show lower pollutant content per cubic meter
of water. The results of the study reveal that, the textile dyeing industries discharge large quantities
of effluent composed of various physicochemical pollutants at significant higher level than
standard value of DOE except some industries which have authentic waste water treatment plant.
From the above findings it can be easily said that, the water of Turag and Shitalakkhya River is
getting highly polluted by the effluent discharged by the dyeing industries of the study area. The
concentration of these pollutants is increasing in an alarming rate with the increasing number of
textile dyeing industries. So the above mitigation measures can be effective to minimize the
pollution to a significant extent. Last of all, for the greater benefits of our country, all people
involved in textile dyeing should be environmentally conscious to preserve our environment as
well as to carry the reputation of our readymade garments in developed countries.

References
www.Wikipedia.com
Amio Water Treatment Limited, 2010.
Textile Dyeing Industries in Bangladesh for Sustainable Development by M. M. Islam, K.
Mahmud, O. Faruk, and M. S. Billah
Choosing an Effluent Treatment Plant by M. Akhtaruzzaman, Alexandra Clemett, Jerry
Knapp, Mahbubul A. Mahmood, Samiya Ahmed.
Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, National Policy for Safe Water
Supply & Sanitation 1998 Local Government Division, Ministry of Local Government,
Rural Development and Cooperatives
Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh (2000), The
Environment Conservation Rules 1997, (unofficial translation),
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Dhaka.
Metcalf and Eddy (2003) Wastewater Engineering Treatment and Reuse McGraw - Hill,
New York.

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Nicolaou M. and Hadjivassilis I. (1992), Treatment of wastewater from the textile industry,
Water Science and Technology , Vol. 25, No. 1, pp
s