Treatment of cheese whey wastewater: combined coagulation and adsorption

Cheese whey wastewater is characterized by high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and other pollution load. Treatment of wastewater was investigated using coagulation and adsorption. Ferric chloride was used as a coagulant in the process. The COD and total dissolved solids (TDS) were removed mainly through coagulation 21-24% and 24-27%, respectively. These results can be achieved by using the coagulant dosage (200 mg L-1) in the optimum pH range (around 7.5). Adsorption by activated carbon can remove organic carbon (31-34%). Langmuir and Freundlich models were then employed to correlate the equilibria data on which both models equally well-fit the data. For kinetic data, pseudo-first and second order models are selected. Both physisorption and chemisorption play important roles for adsorption onto activated carbon. The coagulant treatment was followed by activated carbon treatment can reduce COD (53-55%).

کلیدواژه ها:

Cheese whey wastewater ، Chemical oxygen demand ، Total dissolved solid ، Coagulation ، Adsorption ، Activated carbon