Recycling of bleach plant effluent of an Indian paper mill using water cascade analysis technique

• Published in: Clean technologies and environmental policy Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 677 - 685
• Main Authors: Shukla, Sudheer Kumar, Kumar, Vivek, Yeom, I. T., Bansal, Mukesh Chandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01-08-2012; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bleaching; Cascades; Chemical oxygen demand; Constraining; Earth and Environmental Science; Effluents; Environment; Environmental Economics; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Environmental policy; Fresh water; Halides; Indian; Industrial and Production Engineering; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Mills; Networks; Original Paper; Pulp & paper industry; Pulp & paper mills; Recycling; Sustainable Development; Total dissolved solids; Waste water; Wastewater discharges; Water conservation; Water consumption; Water reuse; Water supply engineering; Water treatment; India; Bleach plant effluent; Paper mill; Water network; Water cascade analysis; Process integration
• ISSN: 1618-954X; 1618-9558
• DOI: 10.1007/s10098-011-0432-7

A systematic approach to optimizing water network has traditionally been utilized to examine and plan water conservation in industrial processes. In the present case study, water cascade analysis was used to analyze and optimize the water network of a bleaching section of an Indian paper mill. Water system integration can minimize both the freshwater consumption and wastewater discharge of a paper mill. Three limiting constraints, i.e., Chemical oxygen demand, Total dissolved solids, and Adsorbable organic halides (AOX), were considered for the study; after analysis, AOX was found to be a critical limiting constraint. A nearest neighbor algorithm (NNA) was used to distribute the fresh water and recycled water among the plant operations. After the application of WCA and NNA in the bleaching section, 41.75% of fresh water consumption and 70.67% of wastewater generation could be reduced.