Design and Start-up of an Advanced Thermophilic Treatment System for High Strength Wastewater from a Pharmaceutical Plant

摘要

Development of a new product at a pharmaceutical plant would result in additional wastewater, including some low-volume, high strength process wastewaters. At full production capacity, the organic loading from the additional 100,000 gallons per day (gpd) of process wastewater (three waste streams, and an allowance for bad batch flows) would exceed 40,000 pounds chemical oxygen demand (COD) per day. This additional organic loading was greater than the capacity of the nearby wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) where the pharmaceutical plant currently discharges its existing wastewaters. The additional wastewater would require extensive pretreatment to be discharged to the nearby WWTP. The pretreatment system had to be available in twelve months as production of the new product was to begin in one year. This paper presents the results of the bench/pilot testing performed on the process wastewater, design of the pretreatment system, and the start-up and initial performance of the pretreatment system. Descriptions are provided for unique features of the design, the chemical treatment system and the ultrafilter.