Proceedings, APIEMS & CIIE 2007, Taiwan, December 9-12, 2007.

Session T1-R05

An Experimental Investigation of the Performance of an Effluent

Treatment Plant
Mohidus Samad Khan 1*, M. Sabder Ali 2, and Shoeb Ahmed 3
1
Australian Pulp and Paper Institute
Department of Chemical Engineering
Monash University
Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
*
Corresponding author’s e-mail: mohidus.samad@eng.monash.edu.au
2
Department of Chemical Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
3
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
North Carolina State University
Raleigh. NC 27695, USA

Abstract: Characteristics of industrial treated water depends on the overall performance of effluent treatment plant (ETP)
as well as the efficiency of individual units involved in the treatment process. The performance of a typical waste water
treatment plant of a composite textile industry was investigated. Water samples from the major units of the treatment
process were collected at different times of the day and the physical and chemical properties of those samples were
measured. The waste removal trend and performance of the treatment sequence were analyzed. An effective way of
performance evaluation was established for the wastewater treatment plants and that was practiced to evaluate the
performances of different treatment units. The evaluated performances were compared with the theoretical values as well
as national standards. The reasons behind unsatisfactory performance have been identified and effective modifications
have been suggested.

Keywords: Effluent treatment plant (ETP), ETP monitoring, treatment efficiency, performance indicator, chemical
dosing.

1. INTRODUCTION

Industrialization in Bangladesh started mainly with agro based industries since 1950. From the seventies, the pace of
industrialization was increased and noticeably diversified. Readymade Garment (RMG) industries were started to get
priority to the entrepreneurs because of its profitable business opportunity. Gradually backward and forward linkage
industries were established to supply the need of RMG sector. Lots of textile and textile dyeing industries have been
established in the last two decades. These textile industries serve the need of external demand. Moreover due to big size
of population local market has a good demand of textile goods. Undoubtedly this growth of small and medium scale
industrial activities has positive impact on economic development. But these advantages are not free from their
limitations. These industries started to consume water resources at a great extent and catalyzed the water pollution. The
rapid but unplanned growth of industrial clusters has led to serious localized water body pollution. As a result huge
agricultural land areas nearby the industrial clusters, which generally produce food grains through out the year, are
diminishing day by day and giving an impact on the total food production of the country. On the other hand the pollution
intensity is also threatening for the diversity of the biological community of the watercourses. The potential solution of
this pollution problem is to treat the effluent water before it is discharged.

According to the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Rules, 1997 Fabric Dyeing and Chemical Processing
Industries are categorized as Red on basis of their environmental impact. According to The Bangladesh Environment
Conservation Act, 1995 and The Environment Conservation Rules, 1997 Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) is mandatory for
each of the red categorized industries (Huq, 2003). To be precise by law, factories must treat as well as monitor the
quality of their wastewater and stay within national limits for pollution. The Environment Conservation Rules, 1997
provides specific discharge quality standards for key parameters from certain industries, including the textile dyeing
industry as shown in Table 1.
 Mohidus Samad Khan, M. Sabder Ali, Shoeb Ahmed

Bangladesh is still emerging in industrialization, even in RMG sector. The globalize market of RMG is also very
much competitive. Minimizing the production cost is one of the major focuses of this business. As a consequence, the
industry managements of Bangladesh often show reluctant to invest money for proper treatment of waste-water
considering it as a non-productive cost. Their experiences regarding the waste-management issues are also not very
promising mainly due to the lack of technical knowledge as their main expertise is on textile, which discourage the other
industries to set their own ETPs. Most of the industries who already established ETP are struggling to operate it
efficiently and economically due to inadequate know-how and resources. Though they regularly run their ETP but they
find difficulties to identify how efficiently it is running. In our study we approached a very simple procedure to monitor
one existing ETP of a composite textile industry and helped them to diagnose their ETP.

Table 1. Discharge Quality Standards for Classified Industries – Composite Textile Plant and Large Processing Units
(Investment over TK 30,000,000)1

Parameter Limit (mg/L)

pH 6.5 – 9
Total Suspended Solid (TSS), (mg/L) 100
BOD5 200C, (mg/L) 50/150*
Oil and Grease, (mg/L) 10
Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), (mg/L) 2100
Waste Water Flow 100 L/Kg of fabric processing

Special parameters based on classification of dyes used

Total Chromium (as Cr molecule), (mg/L) 2

Sulfide (as S molecule), (mg/L) 2
Phenolic compounds as C6H5OH, (mg/L) 5

* BOD limit of 150 mg/l implies only with physico chemical processing

For efficient performance it is necessary to monitor the major parameters (Table 1) of the wastewater entering the
ETP and at several stages in the ETP process. This enables the ETP managers to optimize the effluent treatment processes
by adjusting chemical inputs, retention time and other factors. Regular diagnosis of individual units of ETP informs how
efficiently the ETP is operating and whether the performances of individual units of ETP are satisfactory or not. It helps
the management to reduce operating costs by preventing excess use of chemicals. As a whole, regular monitoring of ETP
helps the management to operate their ETP more efficiently and economically ensuring that the effluent complies with
required standards.

2. THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

An ideal effluent treatment plant (ETP) of a textile dyeing industry consists of several units. The combination of these
units may vary depending on type and function of the industry. These treatment units are mainly of three different classes:
1) Primary, 2) Secondary and 3) Advanced treatment units (Lash et al., 1980). Though using all those treatment units can
assure best performance but due to economic consideration advanced treatment methods such as Ion Exchange,
Electro-Dialysis, Reverse Osmosis are not properly introduced yet for wastewater treatment in Bangladesh. The
combination of primary and secondary (i.e. combination of Physico-Chemical and Biological) units can treat the water up
to the desired standard as they provide the benefit of physical, chemical and biological treatment and can therefore remove
BOD and COD more than 90% and these are the most common form of ETP used in Bangladesh for the treatment of
textile waste (Ali et al., 2005).

A typical wastewater treatment plant consists of an entrance-screening unit followed by an equalization tank and the
physicochemical unit that is mainly a combination of neutralization, coagulation, flocculation and clarifier
(primary clarifier) unit. One or more biological treatment units along with clarifier are used after physicochemical

1
Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Ministry of Environment and Forest, The Environment Conservation
Rules 1997, Schedule 10, Rule 13 (Un-official English version).
 Proceedings, APIEMS & CIIE 2007, Taiwan, December 9-12, 2007. Session T1-R05

treatment unit. The number depends on the quality of wastewater, performance of previous units, type of biological unit
and the efficiency of single biological unit. Finally wastewater from the biological unit is treated with filters (generally
sand or activated carbon filter) depending on water quality. The physico-chemical unit always comes before biological
unit.

The combined performance of the above units improves the water quality in respect of some parameters which are
mainly classified into three classes: Physical, Chemical and Biological parameters (Eckenfelder, 1989). Color, Odor,
Total Suspended Solid (TSS), Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), Turbidity and Conductivity are the main physical parameters
considered but TSS, TDS and color are the most indicative parameters to be controlled. Biochemical Oxygen Demand
(BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Dissolve Oxygen (DO), pH, Alkalinity, Hardness, different metal and ion
contents, are the most important chemical parameters to deal with. For biological treatment microorganism oriented in
different forms is the main parameter that is maintained along with Sludge Volume Index (SVI) and Stirred Sludge
Volume Index (SSVI). To investigate the performance of a treatment sequence it is very important to identify the key
properties which have to be checked on regular basis. The parameters and monitoring location of a typical wastewater
treatment plant are summarized in Table 2. Monitoring few simple parameters may assess the whole plant performance if
done in an effective and systematic way (9).

Table 2. List of Parameters to be checked at Different Sampling Points (Khan et al., 2006)

Unit Parameters to test for Sampling point

pH, TDS, TSS, BOD, COD,

Equalization tank Outflow
Temperature
Outlet, to ensure that the
Neutralization
pH acid or alkali has been
tank
properly mixed
Coagulation
pH Outlet
Flocculation

Primary Clarifier TSS, TDS, COD, pH, BOD Outflow

DO, pH, samples of AS for

Biological
microscopic examination, In aeration basin
Reactor
Temperature
Secondary
BOD, COD, TSS Outflow
Clarifier
Treated Water pH, TDS, TSS, BOD, COD Outlet

To investigate the performance of an ETP as well as diagnosis its major units a composite textile industry is selected
that operates an effluent treatment plant. The industry has a Knit Dyeing unit and a conventional ETP is run there which
contains Physico-Chemical and Biological units as shown in Figure 1. Sampling location for the corresponding major
units of that ETP are shown in Table 3. Major units of the ETP were selected as the sampling locations. Two sets of
samples were collected from the following points of that running ETP which is shown in Table 3. One set of samples was
collected at morning and the other one was collected at evening. The samples were preserved below 4°C and transported
to the analytical laboratory at earliest possible time to minimize the effect of spontaneous chemical reactions and
microbial activities going on in the samples (APHA-AWWA-WEF, 1998).

In the experimental investigation five key parameters: pH, TDS, TSS, BOD5 and COD, are selected from all other
physical, chemical and biological parameters. These parameters are common and important for the major ETP units
shown in Figure 1. pH is a measure of the acid or alkaline condition of water and also is a good tool to determine the
favourable condition for the chemical treatment of wastewater; it is also a sensitive parameter for living micro-organism
as micro-organisms are susceptible at very high or low pH. TDS and TSS are the measure of the solid contents of water
which remain either in dissolved or suspended form. TDS is mainly consisted of soluble metal salts like calcium, ferrous,
sodium, magnesium, potassium, etc. TSS is highly unexpected for any purpose of water; hence, the discharge limit of
TSS is very low comparing to TDS (Table 1). Dissolved oxygen in water is very important for the existing of
flora and fauna. Biodegradable organic matters in wastewater exhaust the dissolved oxygen while decomposing.
5-day Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), a measure of the quantity of dissolved oxygen used by micro-organisms in
 Mohidus Samad Khan, M. Sabder Ali, Shoeb Ahmed

the aerobic decomposition of organic matter in the wastewater over a 5-day period at 20°C, is the most common parameter
of water quality measurement. COD is often used as a substitute for BOD5 as it only takes a few hours to determine. It is
a measure of the oxygen equivalent of the organic material chemically oxidized in the reaction and gives a greater value
than BOD5, especially when biologically resistant organic matter like lignin is present.

Screening Equalization Coagulation

Influent

Biological Biological Tube Settler

Reactor 2 Flocculation
Reactor 1 1

Tube Settler Collector

Tank Sludge Pit Clarifier
2

Sand Activated Carbon

Filtration Filtration Sludge
Dewatering

Treated Water Sludge

Figure 1. Block Diagram of a Model Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP)

Table 3. List of major operating units (sampling points) along with the sampling location of the selected composite industry

Sample ID Location of Sampling Objective

Outflow of To findout the effluent (untreated) water

A
Equalization Tank characteristics

Outflow of Tube To analyze the performance of

B
Settler-1 Coagulation and Flocculation units

Outlet of Biological To analyze the performance of

C
Reactor-1 Biological Reactor-1

Outlet of Biological To analyze the performance of

D
Reactor-2 Biological Reactor-2

To analyze the performance of Tube

Settler-2, Activated Carbon Filter and
Outlet of ETP (treated Sand Filter.
E
water) Also to check whether the discharge
water is compliant with Bangladesh
Legislation or not.
 Proceedings, APIEMS & CIIE 2007, Taiwan, December 9-12, 2007. Session T1-R05

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Different parameters of the samples collected in two sessions of a day from different locations of the ETP are showing in
Table 4.

Table 4. Monitoring Different Units of Effluent Treatment Plant

Bangladesh Morning Session Evening Session

Parameters Units
Standards
A B C D E A B C D E
pH ----- 6.5-9 9.44 9.76 9.82 7.68 7.71 9.83 9.97 9.87 7.1 7.35
TDS mg/L 2100 4395 4301 4819 5196 5550 6852 4137 6598 4891 5168
TSS mg/L 100 92 58 31 54 65 133 64 80 92 79
BOD5 mg/L 50 (/150*) 1000 450 350 240 195 1050 500 375 300 215
COD mg/L 200 1287 648 510 364 291 1419 713 559 433 311
* BOD limit of 150 mg/l implies only with physico chemical processing

It is interesting to find that the performance of ETP was quite stable over the time period though performances of
few units were not satisfactory. Results of ETP analysis are shown in Table 4 and Table 5. The results are graphically
represented in Figure 2 to Figure 5

12
pH_Morning pH_Evening
9.83 9.97 9.87
10
9.76 9.82
9.44
7.68 7.71
8

7.1 7.35
pH

Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point
A, Befor P-C B, After P-C C, End of B-1 D, After B-2 D, Treated Water

Figure 2. pH at different stages of ETP

8000
TDS_Morning TDS_Eveneing
7000

6852
6000 6598 5550
5196
5000
TDS (mg/L)

4301 5168
4819 4891
4000 4395
4137

3000

2000

1000

Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point
A, Befor P-C B, After P-C C, End of B-1 D, After B-2 D, Treated Water

Figure 3. TDS at different stages of ETP

From data shown in Figure 2, it is found that the pH value reduced to desired level after being treated by all units, though
the value was quite high at the biological reactor-1 which is undesirable for the microbial activities. For microbial
 Mohidus Samad Khan, M. Sabder Ali, Shoeb Ahmed

activities the favourable pH is 6-8 (Khan et al., 2006). But the effluent entered into the biological reactor-1 at about
pH 10. This was a major discrepancy that might hamper the efficiency of the biological units.

In Figure 3 the TDS value was gradually increased over the treatment process rather than reducing. As a result the
TDS value in treated water was much higher than the expected values (Bangladesh Standard for TDS is 2100 mg/L).
Also the TDS trend was pretty inconsistent in few stages. The increasing trends of TDS suggest the necessity of
reviewing chemical dosing rate and making the dosing rate optimum.

1200
1050 BOD5_Morning BOD5_Evening
1000
1000

800
BOD5 (mg/L)

600 500

375
400 450 300
350 215
200 240
195

Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point
A, Befor P-C B, After P-C C, End of B-1 D, After B-2 D, Treated Water

Figure 4. BOD5 at different stages of ETP

In the Figures 4 and 5, the trends of BOD5 and COD were found showing similar characteristics both in morning and
evening sessions. Oxygen demands (both biochemical and chemical) were fallen down significantly after
physico-chemical treatment. About 52-55% BOD5 and 50% COD were reduced during physico-chemical treatment,
which indicate satisfactory performance of physico-chemical unit (as the physico-chemical unit can remove BOD 50 to
80 percent (Metcalf & Eddy, 2003). On the other hand the biological reactor 1 was able to reduce the BOD5 value only
10-12% of total BOD5 where as the value was reduced only 7-11% of total BOD5 by the biological reactor 2. The situation
was very much similar for the COD values. Each of biological reactor-1 and 2 was able to reduce the COD value
approximately 10-11%. Together biological reactor-1 and 2 could only able to reduce the BOD5 and COD values 19-21%
and 20-22% respectively, which were less than the expected performance. So the BOD5 and COD values of treated
effluent were remained above the Bangladesh Standard, which is 50mg/L for BOD5 and 200mg/L for COD.

The ETP consists of physico-chemical and biological units can remove BOD or COD up to 90% and sometimes
more than that, when the ETP is operated efficiently. But this ETP removed approximately 80% of BOD5 load and 78%
of COD load (Table 5), which was not good enough to meet the national (BD) or international (US EPA) standards. It
was indicated by the BOD5 and COD trends that there was lots of scope to improve the overall treatment by improving the
performance of biological reactors.

1600
1419
COD_Morning COD_Evening
1400

1200
1287

1000
COD (mg/L)

800 713

559
600
648
433

400 510 311

364
200 291

Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point Sampling Point
A, Befor P-C B, After P-C C, End of B-1 D, After B-2 D, Treated Water

Figure 5. COD at different stages of ETP

 Proceedings, APIEMS & CIIE 2007, Taiwan, December 9-12, 2007. Session T1-R05

Table 5. Diagnoses of Different Units of an Existing ETP

Physico-Chemical Unit Biological Reactor 1 Biological Reactor 2 Overall Performance

mg/L Percentage, % mg/L Percentage, % mg/L Percentage, % mg/L Percentage, %

Morning Session

Reduction of BOD5 550 55 100 10 110 11 805 80.50

Reduction of COD 639 50 138 11 146 11 996 77.39
Reduction of TDS 94 2 -518 -12 -377 -9 -801 -26.28
Evening Session
Reduction of BOD5 550 52 125 12 75 7 835 79.52
Reduction of COD 706 50 154 11 126 9 1108 78.08
Reduction of TDS 2715 40 - 2461 -36 1707 25 1684 24.58

3. CONCLUSION

The biological units were not functioning up to the desired level. Due to the higher pH at the inlet of the biological units
the performance deteriorated. For proper biological treatment micro-organisms should be maintained at a certain range of
pH (pH 6-8) otherwise they would not be sufficiently active to reduce the BOD5 and COD. In case of TDS, the
performance of the physico-chemical unit was not satisfactory, which infers lack of optimization in chemical dosing. In
biological units due to the unfavourable condition for microbial activities as well as addition of excess nutrients and
chemicals for micro organism, TDS was found to be increasing. So optimum chemical dosing and regular monitoring of
the performance indicators would improve the ETP performance and minimize the problems encountered in this ETP.
From this experimental analysis a simple and efficient way to monitor the performance of an ETP is presented which
could be utilized for any similar ETP.

4. ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATION

BOD5 5-day Biochemical Oxygen Demand

COD Chemical Oxygen Demand
DO Dissolved Oxygen
ETP Effluent Treatment Plant
SVI Sludge Volume Index
SSVI Stirred Sludge Volume Index
TDS Total Dissolved Solid
TSS Total Suspended Solid

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We thank Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) for developing the research platform among the textile
industries, academics and researchers through their ISM project. We also acknowledge textile industries of Kaliakair area
in Bangladesh for the help and showing awareness against industrial pollution.

REFERENCES

1. Ali, M. S., Ahmed, S. and Khan, M.M.S. (2005), Characteristics and Treatment Process of Wastewater in a Nylon
Fabric Dyeing Plant, Journal of Chemical Engineering, The Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh, Vol. ChE23, No.1,
pp. 17-22.
 Mohidus Samad Khan, M. Sabder Ali, Shoeb Ahmed

2. APHA-AWWA-WEF, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 20th edition,
APHA-AWWA-WEF, 1998.

3. Eckenfelder, W. Wesley, Industrial Water Pollution Control, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2000.

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5. Huq, E.M. (Ed. 2003), A Compilation of the Environmental Laws of Bangladesh administered by the Department of
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6. Khan, M. S., Knapp, J., Clemett, A., Chadwick, M., Mahmood, M. A., Managing and Monitoring Effluent Treatment
Plants, Booklet series, Managing Industrial Pollution from Small and Medium Scale Industries in Bangladesh,
SEI-BCAS-University of Leeds, UK, Dhaka, 2006.

7. Lash, D. L. and Kominek, E. G. (1980), Primary-Waste-Treatment Methods, Industrial Wastewater and Solid
Engineering, Cavaseno, V., Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 81-123.

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