Biological Treatment of Tannery Wastewater Using Activated Sludge Process

A study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of Activated Sludge Process (ASP) for the treatment of tannery wastewater and to develop a simple design criteria under local conditions. A bench scale model comprising of an aeration tank and final clarifier was used for this purpose. The model was operated continuously for 267 days. Settled tannery wastewater was used as influent to the aeration tank. Five days Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the influent and effluent were measured to find process efficiency at various mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS) and hydraulic detention time (θ). The results of the study demonstrated that an efficiency of above 90% and 80% for BOD5 and COD, respectively could be obtained if the ASP is operated at an MLVSS concentration of 3500 mg/L keeping an aeration time of 12 hours.