Coagulation and Filtration Combined to Treat Paint Factory Wastewater: Empirical Insights from Uganda

Abstract

- Treatment of wastewater from different sources such as agricultural and industrial facilities is one of the world’s challenges to improving people’s health, livelihoods, and well-being, especially in developing nations like Uganda. The main purpose of this research was to investigate the quality and quantity of the wastewater from a case study factory in Uganda and design a treatment system that could treat it to dischargeable standards. Sampling of the wastewater was carried out at the factory; its quality and quantity were determined by conducting both in situ and laboratory tests. The study provides an engineered design of the proposed treatment system which consists of a mixing unit, sedimentation tank, and filtration unit. I 1 utilized coagulation/flocculation with alum in the mixing unit and a sedimentation tank to enable the settling of solids. In the filtration unit, I employed commercial granular activated carbon to adsorb contaminants, and placed sand below it to capture other suspended solids that were left after sedimentation. The findings of my research suggest that the coagulation/flocculation and filtration process combination is effective in treating paint wastewater. I varied the contaminant concentration to examine the performance of the integrated system at different effluent qualities. For initial contaminant concentration of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of 6,200mg/L, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) of 489 mg/L, colour of 39,000 mg/L, Total Phosphorus of 2,453 mg/L, Total Nitrogen (TN) of 1,800 mg/L. The removal reached up to 98.6% of COD, 91.4% of BOD, 99.6% of colour, 99.2% of TN, and 99.