bmSOLUTION® M40 reduces Copper

level in Final Discharge into compliance.

Situation
A watch component manufacturer located in Ipoh, Perak,
Malaysia constructed a wastewater treatment plant with
Chemical precipitation to remove heavy metals and biological
aeration to remove organic compounds. Raw wastewater
obtained from production floor with the following
characteristics.

Raw Wastewater
Typical Characteristics:
pH 7.2
Copper, mg/L 32
COD, mg/L 4500

The wastewater treatment plant was designed with metal

hydroxide precipitation but only managed to bring down the
copper level to the range of 3.0 – 5.0 mg/L which is way above
the allowable discharge limit of < 1.0 mg/L. The contractor who
design the treatment plant had difficulty to handover the
treatment plant to the client after more than 6 months of
commissioning as the final discharge was bluish in color due to
the presence of high level of copper ion (3 – 5mg/L).

Our representatives were contacted by client directly to help

solve the problem. After our evaluation, we believe that the
failures were due to the presence of ammonia and other
chelating agent in their wastewater which prevented the copper
ion from precipitated out as hydroxides.

We then carried out jar test experiments using our heavy metal
precipitant, bmSOLUTION M 40 to determine the efficacy of
the copper removal.

(Continued on next page)

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 Laboratory Results
The raw wastewater is then treated with bmSOLUTION M 40,
coagulated with PAC based coagulant and flocculated with
anionic polyacrylamide. Coagulation/flocculation process was
controlled at pH 7.5 to 8.0 and clarified via sedimentation with
the following treated water result:

Result of treated water with & without bmSOLUTION® M 40

Without M 40 With M 40
pH 7.92 7.88
Copper, mg/L 3.93 0.12

With the laboratory results, the client was convinced of change

to our program and the actual plant run result as below:

Plant Results:
The intended chemicals dosing were set up accordingly and
treatment plant were operated under our supervision in the first
3 days and very good results were obtained to our client
satisfaction. The physical appearance of bluish color (due to
copper content) in the final discharge disappear in less than 2
days of operation and the copper level was brought into
compliance of < 1.0mg/L.

The plant has been continued to run very successfully on this

treatment and not just complied with Malaysia discharge limit
but also complied a much stricter internal control limit.

Below are typical final discharge characteristics:

pH 7.5
Copper, mg/L 0.15
COD, mg/L 120

i-Chem Solution Sdn Bhd

2, Jalan TPP 5/16, Taman Perindustrian Puchong,
47160 Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia.

www.i-chemsolution.com

bmSOLUTION is the Registered Trademark of i-Chem Solution Sdn Bhd Case Study CS 108
© 2018 i-Chem Solution Sdn Bhd All Rights Reserved Page 2 of 2