Treatment Of Distillery Wastewater Using Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation

Vol. 6 No. 2

Year : 2011

Issue : Nov-Jan

Title  : Treatment Of Distillery Wastewater Using Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation 

Author Name  : S. Suresh, Ravi Shankar , Shri Chand 

Synopsis  : 

In the present paper, treatment of typical high strength distillery wastewater (DWW) by catalytic wet-air oxidation (CWAO) at atmospheric pressure and 343-373 K. Experiments  were  conducted  to  investigate  the  effects  of  temperature (T)  and  catalyst  dosage (m) on  the  chemical  oxygen  demand  (COD) and colour removal. In this study, five catalysts were used namely, CuSO4, ZnCl2, FeCl3, Al(OH)3 and Cu (II)-exchanged NaY zeolite (SZ). The treatment efficiencies were 58.2%, 56.6%, 21.9%, 17.8% of the COD and 88.4%, 80.2%, 13.3%, 12.8% of colour for CuSO4, ZnCl2, FeCl3, and Al(OH)3 in 8h at 373 K and atmospheric pressure, respectively, where else, 13% and 13.3% removal efficiencies of COD, colour at same temperature and pressure, when SZ as a catalyst. The CuSO4 catalyst was found to be best amongst all the catalysts for the treatment of DWW. The experimental data on the DWW exhibited two clearly distinct COD reduction phases: the first phase having fast rate followed by the second phase having slower rate. Both the phases of the CWAO were found to be first order reduction kinetics. The activation energy evaluated for CuSO4 was found to be 2.86 kcal/gmol for the first step and 3.65 kcal/gmol for the second step. The residue can be used as a fuel in the combustion furnaces and the ash obtained can be blended with organic manure and used in agriculture/horticulture.