Advanced Adsorptive Media for Treating Industrial Wastewater for Agricultural Use

Cultivating black soldier fly larvae to produce chicken feed and organic fertilizer

Types of food materials: Coffee grounds, lateritic soil, bentonite, zeolite, fly ash, eggshells
Product obtained from research: Granular medium for treating industrial wastewater


Due to droughts causing water shortages in the agricultural sector, the Ministry of Industry has approved the temporary use of industrial wastewater for agricultural purposes during the 2020 drought. This permission is limited to 14 types of factories, such as dairy processing, seafood processing, vegetable oil or animal fat processing, vegetable, plant, fruit processing, seed or tuber processing, starch-based food production, sugar processing, tea, coffee, chocolate, or confectionery production, and seasoning production. However, farmers are still concerned about the color and residues in the treated wastewater. This research has developed advanced adsorptive medias from waste materials suitable for treating wastewater from these types of factories to meet the reuse standards and be appropriate for agricultural activities, following the principle of zero discharge and directly addressing user needs.
Advanced adsorptive media: The treatment medium is made from a mixture of lateritic soil, bentonite, and zeolite in the proportion of 60-70%, and coffee grounds in the proportion of 20-30%. Additionally, fly ash from factories and eggshells from household waste are used as additional materials. Eggshells are environmentally friendly and cost-effective materials that can be used to treat pollution. Various forms of media are molded in this study. The mixture is moulded into spherical granules of 10 and 30 millimetres in diameter, then dried and fired at appropriate temperatures. When used to treat wastewater from sugar factories, vegetable and fruit processing factories, and starch-based food factories, the filtration rate of 0.8 m³/m².d was found to reduce the color of the water to an average concentration of 111 ± 27 ADMI. This color concentration is acceptable to most sugarcane farmers (based on surveys), who consider a concentration range of 74-118 ADMI acceptable. Additionally, the granules were found to be more effective in treating TDS and TKN than commercially available granular media (Popper).

Picture of prototype size and prototype installation


Developing advanced adsorptive media from coffee grounds and waste residues for treating the sugar factory and other industrial effluent under the concept of “Zero Liquid Discharge”

Supported by the National Research Council of Thailand (Fiscal year 2011)


Researcher
Prof. Dr. Thammarat Koottatep and team
Environmental Engineering and Management
58 Moo 9 Tambon Klongnueng Pathum Thani, Bangkok, 12120
Tel: 081-869-6741 E-mail: thamarat@ait.asia

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