Ultrafiltration of Toxic Effluent and Reverse Osmosis for Management of Ground Water in Industrial Clusters

Abstract

The present study attempts to assess the nature of effluents generated from textile bleaching and dyeing units located at Kalikapur area under Maheshtala region, West Bengal, India and to provide a sustainable management of ground water resources through installing CETPs with zero liquid discharge system. Effluent from medium, small and tiny units of this region are estimated at 2000 MLD. Studies with 40 units for four years (2012—2016) located in this area exhibited following mean values of different physic-chemical variables: pH(9), BOD(608 mg/l), COD(1824 mg/l), TDS (6410 mg/l), TSS (926 mg/l)) and trace metals such as Pb (0.43mg/l), Cr(0.031 mg/l), Zn(0.74 mg/l), Ni (0.07 mg/l) and Cd (0.03 mg/l). These values exceeded the standard permissible limits stipulated by FAO (1985) and WHO (2003). The wastewater laden with toxic trace metals is adversely affecting the environment and human health and also degrades the quality of both surface and groundwater and consequently contaminates agricultural land, crops, fruits and vegetable and causes harm to aquatic life forms. Four to five CETPs are urgently required to install at different locations of the Mahestala region with a capacity of 500 MLD each, at least one in Kalikapur area, to manage large volume of wastewater (2000 MLD) and sustainable management of ground water resources in a thickly populated urban area near Calcutta, a principal city of India.