Most Important Parameter for Industrial Wastewater Reuse

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Which parameter is more important between TDS and COD in an advanced treatment unit to assess in industrial wastewater treatment to reuse in an industrial park? Why?

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17 Answers

  2. Dear Iman

    This is an open and leading question, no intelligent person would answer it, unless they are prepared to first state 100's of presumptions.

    It will depend on what quality is required in the treated water.

    And as for "advanced treatment unit" this term "advanced" is so miss used in water industry around the world you should know that you have to define the technology before a useful discussion can be provided.

     

     

  3. Both parameters are to be taken care of because they will interfere and contaminate the location where they are used. Reduce the cod to the maximum extent in the biological process so that we get good efficiency in RO plant for TDS removal.

  4. Several commenters below were erroneously deprecating water recycling.  Anyone who is unsure of the value and safety of wastewater recycling should read the WHO Guidance released last month. It is important to recognize that water treatment technology has progressed well beyond where it was just a few years ago.

     

    http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/potable-reuse-guidelines/en/

  5. I think TDS would be more important than COD, because the COD can not be high if the TDS is very low. However a low COD can have a high TDS!

    Answered on by

    1 Comment

    1. thanks. it is amazing. Do you have or know any reasonable document for it?

      if yes, I will be appreciated to have them.

      Commented on by

  6. Your effluent will probably require treatment for both to get it to a suitable standard for discharge either to the environment or for recycling. The standard that it will require treating to will depend on the receiving water / national standards, just as recycling will depend on the quality requirement of the recycled water consumer. As others have said it makes a considerable difference what the recycle is to be used for

    1 Comment

    1. the intention of wastewater treatment is for reusing in industrial usages. and generally both COD and TDS will be evaluated. but the point I want to know is that which one is more important.

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  7. Dear Iman

    The most important issue in industrial waste water recycling is that the process is not using chemical additives. It means that the purified water does not contain any chemicals that were not there in the first place. the amount of residues in the purification process are to be determined by the amount of contaminant that the industry (the process) is ready to receive as recycled water.  Physico-Chemical processes are best to do the job. the costs depends on how expensive are the fees to evacuate the water or send them to the sewage. Electro-coagulation (with or without electro-fenton) will do the job best. WTR tec is recycling 3000 ppm of Chromium (6)  contaminated water for three years now. you may refer to www.wtr-t.com

  8. En

    Hello to this day nobody should engage in such discussion on reuse of wastewater from both of domesticity than industrials.

    All of these wastewater are steeped in chemical that no effective system is able to eliminate such as physicochemical treatment. This chemical pollution is mostly dissolved so invisible.

    Also eliminate it to implement a targeted system. But targeted toward what kind of chemical molecule? What will be the treatment targeted to one different chemical reactions? This must be added the presence of oxygen. 

    We can realize that sanitation services play the sorcerer's apprentice without worrying about the consequences of the impact of their actions on the environment and on humans.

    All of these chemical pollution will disperse in the environment, mainly in natural water environments, essential elements in the condition of life on Earth. 

    It's beautiful to launch claims of recycling under the guise of ecological ideas in where the preservation of a scarce resource. For me any idea of liquid from the management of wastewater reuse is a crime against humanity.I'm talking about management, because in all the descriptions of management stations doesn't appear anywhere a semblance of purification treatment. Filtered, we put aside, rejected a liquid.

    What is set aside will be dispersed in the environment once again relying on any recycling as the farmland of sludge of dung-spreading totally impregnated of chemical

    PS: physico-chemical treatment is a process very expensive who loses his purification performance from its use. What in means that we know not at what point there is no function 

    2 Comments

    2. Yes. In the guise of common effluent treatment plants and treated effluent recycling systems. public are being misled by the polluting industries and Federal Govts., Simply the pollutants are being converted from one from to another form , the same could not be completely eliminated. Once the mistake of over exploiting natural resources for industrial and domestic greed and materliasm , the resultant pollutants are irreversible and we need to face the consequences in one form or other.     

      3 Comment replies

      1. The vast majority of chemicals and pollutants in wastewater can be either removed from the waste stream or converted into innocuous forms. Is not taking water from the environment and then discharging it in a polluted form a far greater waste of resources than recycling? 

  10. Hi Imam, as other contributors have stated, it depends on the requirements of the specific industries in the industrial park.  However you should also consider what industries are contributing the effluent to the advanced treatment unit.  E.g. if you have food related industries or an abattoir, the COD contribution to the treatment unit will be very high while the TDS contribution may be standard, while if you have metal industries contributing effluent the TDS in these effluents may be high.  So the effluent from the treatment unit may have either above standard COD or above standard TDS (also dependent on what processes you include in your advanced treatment unit.  But I imagine this is why you are asking the question  - you need to decide what unit processes to design for in the advanced treatment unit?

    1 Comment

    1. thanks because of complete answer. let me add two. point. the aim of wastewater reuse is to give the water back for industries again and the industries are so various and are not limited to just a limit special group.

      My personal opinion is that the TDS is more important. because we can reduce the COD in secondary treatment, but not TDS. and it is the main reason for designing advanced treatment unit (to reduce TDS).

      So what is your answer now? TDS or COD

      Commented on by

      1 Comment reply

      1. As you have surmised the COD reduction is the basic step that will allow for either discharge or recycling, The TDS will matter depending on the application so that general washdown and toilet flushing will be fine but cooling and other duties may not be depending on the application and TDS level.

  11. It ultimately depends on the purity required by the reuse application.  For example, if your reuse application is toilet flushing or cleaning mud from vehicle tires, neither TDS nor COD concentrations matter.  However, if the reuse is to be used as feedstock for a manufacturing process, irrigation of landscape or crops or any other application, the requirements of each specific application need to be considered as well as the waste created by the reuse process and it's destination.

    1 Comment

    1. Thanks because of your contribution. The application of reuse is for industrial processes again after treatment. So which parameter is more important in this situation?

       

      Commented on by

  12. I am with Ken, both are critical.
    If the water is to be used for cooling most probably TDS since this includes part of COD. Otherwise if re-use is directly in process, the process will determine the limits.
    If TDS is from stable inorganic salts, medium TDS could be acceptable for cooling. Equally it might be acceptable for cleaning-barking operations in Pulp and Paper...
    If COD is close to BOD5 (water rich in biodegradable carbonaceous material) the water will tend to generate bio-growth and be unsuitable for any direct application.

    1 Comment

    1. thanks because of your collaboration. but I this issue is not clear for me yet. please refer to Ken's comments. I explained more there and I will be appreciated more if you make this issue more clear. thanks  

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  13. Both are critical, however, depending on the actual values (how high, salt mix and what organics is the COD) and the reuse application (process water, ,cooling towers, ,etc.), there may be more tolerance for one over the other.  High TDS may lead to corrosion and scaling issues in cooling systems, however, anticorrosion and antiscalents programs can minimize impacts.  COD will likely lead to biogrowth issues in process and cooling systems.  However, if the high COD water is reused for land application farming, for example, the high COD can be tolerated and high TDS often cannot be tolerated.  So, it depends.... 

    1 Comment

    1. Thanks because of your comprehensive answer. In this investigation the purpose of industrial wastewater treatment is for consumption in industrial processes again. and the industries are diverse, so we need to produce a water for different industries. In this situation which parameter is more important?

      (In my opinion TDS is more important, because secondary treatment units can reduce the COD, not TDS. So TDS is more critical and the intention from establishment of an advanced treatment unit is to reduce the TDS.)

      Commented on by

  14. As someone who's worked in the Industry, my competence is not in the technical issue of TDS vs. COD but in the Stakeholder Engagement for Stakeholder / Public Opinion Management that can damage Reputations and bring much heightened Regulatory Scrutiny. In issues like "toilet-to-tap," or "toilet-to-aquifer" deep-well injection, it's a major issue that I've worked to plan for and manage. I don't know what your re-use parameters are, so re-use issues may (or may not) rear their ugly head in terms of Management of Public / Stakeholder Expectations / Relationships / Reputations. Always happy to chat about this.

    1 Comment

    1. Thanks a lot. but the issue is that the purpose of reuse is for industrial consumption and the problem is that the industries are so diverse.

      anyway I guess TDS is more important (although I am not sure). because the secondary treatment unit can decrease the COD, but it does not have any influence on TDS. So TDS is more critical. if you refer to Ken's comments it can this issue more clear for you.

      thanks

      Commented on by

  15. Basically treatment process of the industrial waste water depends on the characteristic of the effluent. Basically COD value is one of the most important parameter for designing ETP but in case of some industries like Distillery TDS value is also important for design of ETP. During tertiary process where RO is used there TDS calculation is required.

    1 Comment

    1. thanks. but in your opinion which one is more important for designing of advanced treatment unit?

      Commented on by

  16. it depends on the composition of the wastewater and what your discharge regulations require. In the US each plant has a discharge permit which determines what they must measure and what and how much they are allowed to discharge to a waterway. If it is an indirect discharge, to a municipal wastewater plant, then part of the permit is to protect the municipal wastewater plant from upsets due to excess TOC or nutrient or pH other things.

  17. COD

    Answered on by

    2 Comments

    1. Which one is more important for designing of advanced treatment unit? Is your answer same yet?

       

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