Combined SBR and RO pilot scale treatment for pharmaceutical wastewater

Abstract

Complexity, presence of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and need to meet stringent rules have made treating of pharmaceutical wastewater highly challenging, which lead to an increase in attention towards these wastewaters seeking alternate and new methods. Some of the most commonly and widely accepted such treatment methods are activated carbon, membrane filtration and reverse osmosis. The present study focusses on treating wastewater from pharmaceutical industry using a combination of sequential batch reactor (SBR) and reverse osmosis (RO). After a series of four SBR treatments (SBR – I, II, III and IV) 53.7% of COD reduction was obtained by the end of SBR – IV. 99% removal in TDS, 99% reduction in COD and 83% reduction in Ammonia were obtained after treating the effluent from SBR by reverse osmosis. From the result it is concluded that series of SBR treatment proved to be suitable pretreatment for Reverse Osmosis which has shown promising results in reduction of the tested pollution parameters.