Assessment of physicochemical characteristics of effluents from orient paper mills Amlai dist. Shahdol (M.P.)

Abstract

The release of substantial volumes of wastewater as effluent from the pulp and paper industries into nearby streams leads to significant health and environmental issues. It is crucial to study and understand the properties of these large quantities of effluents in order to develop effective treatment methods before their disposal. The physicochemical characteristics of effluents originating from an agricultural-based Orient paper mill in the Amlai, Shahdol Madhya Pradesh of India were examined, including pH levels, color, turbidity, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total solids (TS), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), and adsorbable organic halogens (AOX). The effluent samples collected from different processing units of the paper mill exhibited substantial variations across the discharge streams. The mean values pH, colour, turbidity, BOD, COD, TS, TDS, TSS and AOX ranged from 1.84±0.05 to 9.82±0.08, 480.46±0.62 to 3935.15±6.08 PCU, 115.26±2.07 to 480.38±4.11 NTU, 356.62±2.12 to 1340.28±4.62 ppm, 882.54±2.03 to 2708.11±3.26 ppm, 1720.45±0.54 to 4255.30±5.08 ppm, 1520.24±1.37 to 3033.16±4.26 ppm, 201.24±3.16 to 1218.28±4.82 ppm and 16.63±1.19 to 40.44±4.08 ppm respectively. The findings revealed significantly elevated levels of all physicochemical parameters in the effluents from different processing units of the paper mill, surpassing the allowable limit. Consequently, it is imperative to implement suitable treatment measures before releasing them into the environment.