Wastewater Treatment of a Cardboard Manufacturing Plant by Infiltration Percolation

Abstract

Different coastal sands of the city of El Jadida are used to filter wastewater from a cardboard manufacturing plant combined with fly ash and bottom ash (by-products of a local power plant). The performances of five matrices of these elements are compared in infiltration-percolation in vertical columns. The study of particle size sand is performed beforehand. The chemical and mineralogical composition of fly ash and bottom ash are produced by X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction respectively. The wastewater samples were collected during a complete cycle of production of the cardboard. The heavy metals content before and after filtration was obtained by atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-AES). The parameters analyzed were: total suspended solids (TSS), organic matter COD, BOD5, the potential hydrogen pH and heavy metals (iron, zinc and arsenic). The results are very conclusive and respect the essence of control required by Moroccan regulations (law 1606-06) related to discharges from the papermaking and cardboard industry.