Gloria Linda Ndagire, Roice Bwambale Kalengyo
Abstract: The treatment of wastewater from various sources, such as agricultural and industrial facilities, poses significant chal-lenges in improving public health and well-being, especially in developing countries like Uganda. This study aimed to address this issue by investigating the quality and quantity of wastewater from a specific factory in Uganda and design-ing a treatment system capable of meeting discharge stand-ards. The research involved sampling the wastewater at the factory and conducting both on-site and laboratory tests to assess its characteristics. The proposed treatment system consists of a mixing unit, sedimentation tank, and filtration unit. Coagulation/flocculation with alum was used in the mixing unit, followed by sedimentation to facilitate the set-tling of solids. In the filtration unit, commercial granular activated carbon was employed to adsorb contaminants, while sand was placed below it to capture remaining sus-pended solids after sedimentation. The results indicate that the combination of coagulation/flocculation and filtration processes effectively treats paint wastewater. The study ex-amined the system's performance at various effluent quali-ties by varying the initial contaminant concentrations. For initial contaminant concentrations of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) at 6,200 mg/L, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) at 489 mg/L, color at 39,000 mg/L, Total Phosphorus at 2,453 mg/L, and Total Nitrogen (TN) at 1,800 mg/L, the system achieved impressive removal efficiencies: 98.6% for COD, 91.4% for BOD, 99.6% for color, 99.2% for TN, and 99.8% for total phosphorus. In summary, this research paper presents a study on the treatment of paint wastewater from a factory in Uganda. The proposed treatment system, using coagulation/flocculation and filtration, demonstrates high removal efficiencies for various contaminants, making it a promising solution for addressing wastewater treatment challenges in the region.
Keywords: Paint wastewater treatment, wastewater characteristics, flow rate, sedimentation tank, filtration unit, integrated system
Date Published: December 12, 2023 DOI: 10.11159/ijepr.2023.004
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