Wastewater contains cellulose; how to treat it?
Thread Content
The wastewater from our factory contains cellulose, at a concentration of 0.2 g/100 ml. We are currently using microbial treatment methods, but the results are not satisfactory. I was wondering if any experts have better treatment approaches; please advise.
Cellulose? What factory? To the best of my knowledge, cellulose is insoluble in water; as long as it is not too fine, filtration can be considered as a method. You can create a filtering screen with an angle of more than 45 degrees based on the amount of water, so that the wastewater flows downward evenly from the top; I don’t have the specific parameters here, but the length over which the water flows should not exceed two-thirds of the length of the filter screen. Manually remove the filter screen. There’s also air flotation; the former is cheaper but requires more labor, while the latter is much more expensive but more convenient.
Is it soluble or insoluble? If it is insoluble, it exists as suspended particles in water and can be recovered using air flotation. If it is soluble, acid precipitation is required at such high concentrations: the pH is adjusted to 3-4, which causes the substance to precipitate, after which biochemical treatment is applied.
Our factory produces carboxymethyl cellulose and hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose. Both are soluble in water; they simply have different gelation temperatures and viscosities. Carboxymethyl cellulose can be treated with acid, but hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose cannot be treated with acid, which is quite troublesome.
Fenton – neutralization – hydrolysis – aerobic