Advanced treatment by chemical oxidation of pulp and paper effluent from a plant manufacturing hardboard from waste paper

This study attempts to evaluate the applicability of chemical oxidation processes to polish biologically treated effluent of a plant manufacturing hardboard from waste paper to comply with the discharge limit of 120 mg l-1 chemical oxygen demand (COD). In the first step, a chemically assisted settling was applied. The optimum results were obtained with alum plus lime with the alum dose of 200 mg l-1. In the second step, chemically assisted settling effluent was fed into an activated sludge system and over 80% COD removal was achieved. In the last step of the experimental study, a series of ozone oxidation and Fenton oxidation methods were tested to remove residual COD. Ozone oxidation provided 80% COD removal. An ozone dose of 40 mg min-1 with a reaction time of two hours was found to be optimum. Catalytic ozonation by using ferric iron, as well as high pH ozonation, Fenton process and H2O2/O3 oxidation did not prove to be more efficient than plain ozonation under these study conditions.