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Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 7383–7387

Short Communication

Paper and board mill effluent treatment with the combined

biological–coagulation–filtration pilot scale reactor
Muhammad Afzal, Ghulam Shabir, Irshad Hussain, Zafar M. Khalid *
Environmental Biotechnology Division, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), P.O. Box 577, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Received 4 October 2007; received in revised form 16 January 2008; accepted 20 January 2008
Available online 17 March 2008

Abstract

Pilot scale reactor based on combined biological–coagulation–filtration treatments was designed and evaluated for the treatment of
effluent from a paper and board mill. Biological treatment by fed batch reactor (FBR) followed by coagulation and sand filtration (SF)
resulted in a total COD and BOD reduction of 93% and 96.5%, respectively. A significant reduction in both COD (90%) and BOD (92%)
was also observed by sequencing batch reactor (SBR) process followed by coagulation and filtration. Untreated effluent was found to be
toxic, whereas the treated effluents by either of the above two processes were found to be non-toxic when exposed to the fish for 72 h. The
resultant effluent from FBR-coagulation–sand filtration system meets National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) of Pakistan
and can be discharged into the environment without any risks.
Ó 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: Biodegradation; Fed batch reactor; Paper and board mill effluent; Sequencing batch reactor; Wastewater treatment

1. Introduction effluent such as those based on aerobic, anaerobic, algal,

The pulp and paper industry is the second largest indus-
try after textile in Pakistan, with 140 plants employing
about 85,000 people. Indigenous wheat straw, kahi grass
and bagasse are used as raw materials in addition to recy-
clable waste in most of the paper industries of Pakistan.
The Pakistani pulp/paper industry consumes large volumes
of water (60 m3/tonne of paper produced) and energy.
Since the pulp produced corresponds to about 40–45% of
the original weight of raw material, the effluents are heavily
loaded with organic matter, having high suspended solids,
color, COD and BOD. Most of the Pakistani paper/pulp
mills do not have satisfactory and adequate wastewater
treatment facilities and are thus a cause of serious environ-
mental concern (Qureshi, 2003).
Worldwide, there are many existing biological and
chemical treatment processes for paper and board mill
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +92 41 2651475; fax: +92 41 2651472.
E-mail addresses: afzal@nibge.org (M. Afzal), zafarkhalid@nibge.org
(Z.M. Khalid).
fungal biomass, ozonation, electrochemical, photocataly-
sis, coagulation–flocculation treatment (Tarlan et al.,
2002; Gonzalez et al., 2003; Belmonte et al., 2006; Buzzini
and Pires, 2007; Malaviya and Rathore, 2007; Nair et al.,
2007; Ma et al., 2007; Rodrigues et al., 2008).
Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is a fill-and-draw acti-
vated sludge system for wastewater treatment (Dubeski
et al., 2001; Wilderer et al., 2001). In this system, waste-
water is added to a single ‘‘batch” reactor, treated to
remove undesirable components, and then discharged.
This method has also been proved effective for pulp and
paper industrial wastewater treatment (Tsang et al.,
2007). The fed batch reactor (FBR), however, is relatively
a new concept in wastewater treatment technology
(Moreno-Andrade et al., 2006). It involves the slow addi-
tion of highly concentrated wastewater (or nutrient med-
ium) into an aeration tank/reactor with no effluent
removal until the tank is full. Although the FBR process
is quite effective in fermentation/bioprocessing industry
but it is still under-explored for paper mill effluent
treatment.

0960-8524/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2008.01.046
7384 M. Afzal et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 7383–7387
It is obvious that a wastewater treatment process based
on a single biological, chemical or a physical approach is
not effective enough to meet the increasingly stringent dis-
charge requirements of paper/pulp industries (Thompson
et al., 2001). In view of these problems, the primary objec-
tive of this study was to design and evaluate a combined
biological, coagulation and filtration treatment process at
pilot scale to find an economical and equally effective
strategy to treat wastewater streams from paper/pulp
industries, which could in fact be adopted by small scale
paper/pulp industries in developing countries like
Pakistan.
2. Methods
2.1. Wastewater collection and characterization
The dissolved air flotation (DAF) treated paper and
board wastewater (PBW) used in this study was collected
from main outlet of Century Paper and Board Mill located
in Kasur, Pakistan and analyzed for various physico-chem-
ical parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, TSS, settleable sol-
ids, N, P, COD, BOD, and phenol contents using standard
methods (APHA, 1998).
2.2. Activated sludge enrichment
The activated sludge, used as inoculum, was collected
from the return sludge of local municipal sewage treatment
plant. This activated sludge was enriched by growing it in a
glass reactor (5 L capacity) containing diluted wastewater.
The concentration of wastewater was increased gradually
to screen and isolate highly adopted bacterial strains which
could survive and grow in the presence of PBW. The
adopted enriched bacterial strains formed flocs which ulti-
mately settled down and supernatant was removed to get
concentrated activated sludge. The resulting activated
sludge was then used as inoculum in SBR and FBR for
the biological treatment of PBW.
2.3. Pilot scale reactor
A pilot scale reactor consisted of a wastewater storage
tank, biological reactor for SBR and FBR operation,
alum treatment tank and sand filtration tank. Biological
reactor was made of glass container with a working vol-
ume of about 200 L and covered with a stainless steel
lid having options for air supply and temperature/pH
probes. Sand filtration tank was a glass container with a
sand bed of 3 in. thickness at the bottom. Coagulation
treatment tank was a plastic container. Filling and with-
drawing of wastewater was carried out by peristaltic
pumps and mixing in biological and coagulation tank
was done by overhead motor stirrers with stainless steel
paddles (120 rpm). Air was purged in the biological tank
by an air compressor.
2.4. Operational conditions
The following operating parameters were maintained
during the biological–coagulation–filtration treatment of
wastewater: 20 min filling period for SBR operation and
10 h for FBR operation, 30 h for aeration, 30 min for each
of settling, clarified liquid removal, coagulation and sand
filtration. Other operational parameters were; hydraulic
retention time (HRT) 0.5 and 15 h, volumetric loading rate
(VLR) 6000 and 200 mg L1 h1, respectively, for SBR and
FBR. Sludge retention time (SRT) was approximately 5–
10 days, mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentra-
tion between 4500 and 5000 mg L1 and sludge volume
index (SVI) 50.4 mg L1 for both SBR and FBR.
2.5. Biological treatment of wastewater by SBR and FBR
For SBR treatment, 200 L of wastewater was fed to the
biological reactor with or without required nutrients (N
and P), and inoculated with activated sludge. Nutrients in
the form of Urea and di-ammonium hydrogen phosphate
were supplied to maintain a BOD:N:P ratio of 100:5:1.
Supplementary trace minerals were added into the waste-
water before each treatment as described by Chua (1998).
Before feeding to the reactor, temperature of the wastewa-
ter was brought to room temperature. Temperature, pH
and the dissolved oxygen of the wastewater during opera-
tion were 30 ± 2 °C, 7.0 ± 1 and 3 ± 0.5 mg L1, respec-
tively. Samples collected after every 4 h for 24 h were
analyzed for COD and BOD. In case of FBR process,
about 10 L of wastewater (50% diluted with tap water)
was placed in the biological reactor in the presence/absence
of required N and P, and inoculated with 1 L activated
sludge. The reactor was aerated for two days to obtain a
dense culture. After two days, continuous feeding of the
wastewater was started without any effluent removal. Tem-
perature, pH and dissolved oxygen of the wastewater dur-
ing operation were almost same as in SBR operation. The
reactor liquid volume increased linearly with time at a rate
of 20 L h1.
2.6. Coagulation and sand filtration
Biological treated wastewater by SBR and FBR opera-
tions was left for 30 min for the settling of activated sludge
(microorganisms, non-biodegradable materials). After set-
tling, wastewater pumped into coagulation tank was mixed
thoroughly with alum powder (150 mg L1 of wastewater)
for about 30 min at 120 rpm with an electric motor and
allowed to settle down again for 30 min. The supernatant
was passed through the freshly prepared sand bed under
the force of gravity to remove the suspended particles.
After each filtration of 200 L biological and chemical trea-
ted wastewater, sand was cleaned by soaking in diluted sul-
furic acid for overnight, then washing with tap water, and
finally washing and soaking in distilled water. This sand
was dried at 150 °C and reused for filtration.
 M. Afzal et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 7383–7387 7385

2.7. Biotoxicity assay
Acute toxicity of treated and untreated wastewater was
determined by exposing fish (Labeo rohita) to the wastewa-
ter (APHA, 1998). The average weight and length of 4.5
months old fish was 1.6 ± 0.3 g and 5 ± 1 cm, respectively.
Before testing toxicity of each sample, pH of the wastewater
was adjusted to 7 ± 0.5 with HCl/NaOH and then passed
through the sand bed. The wastewater was then placed in
water bath to bring its temperature to 22 °C. For each treat-
ment, five fish were transferred to aerated aquaria contain-
ing 10 L tap water (control), treated and untreated
wastewater in triplicate. The mortality data of fish were
recorded for 72 h. As per requirement of the test, no feed
was supplied to the experimental fish; the aeration however
was supplied continuously till the end of experiment. Dead
fish, if any, were immediately removed from each tank.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effluent characterization
Physico-chemical characterization of paper and board
mill effluent (DAF treated) showed that it contained
(mg L1) BOD 488 ± 19, COD 2054 ± 21, TDS 2873 ±
42, TSS 145 ± 13, phenol 2.19 ± 0.12, nitrogen 2.15 ±
0.25, phosphorous 1.2 ± 0.13; pH 6.6, EC (mS cm1)
2.18 ± 0.01 and settleable solids (ml L1) 0.71 ± 0.03 (all
results mean of three replicates). Due to higher values of
BOD, COD and phenol, the effluent did not comply with
the permissible National Environmental Quality Standards
(NEQS, 1999).
3.2. Performance of SBR and FBR operations
By biological treatment of PBW on pilot scale, 49% and
55% COD, and 75% and 78% BOD was reduced by SBR
(data not shown) and FBR (Fig. 1) processes, respectively,
within 24 h in the presence of N and P, which is signifi-
cantly higher than most of the previous reports (Dubeski
et al., 2001; Tarlan et al., 2002; Gonzalez et al., 2003; Buzz-
ini and Pires, 2007; Malaviya and Rathore, 2007; Nair
et al., 2007) with comparable initial values of COD and
BOD. Addition of N and P during biological treatment
(SBR and FBR) further improved COD and BOD reduc-
tion by 8–11% and 16–20%. These observations are in close
agreement with other’s findings (Shabir et al., 2008; Niko-
lopoulou et al., 2007) who reported enhanced biodegrada-
tion by the addition of nutrient mineral fertilizers along
with the bacterial inocula.
3.3. Tertiary treatment
When PBW treated by SBR operation on pilot scale was
further treated with alum, after settling and filtration, an
additional 41.37% COD and 17.12% BOD reduction was
observed, which resulted in total COD and BOD reduction
of 90.48% and 92.27%, respectively. Similarly 37.93% and
17.99% improvement in the reduction of COD and BOD,
respectively, was observed after subjecting FBR treated
wastewater with alum followed by settling and filtration
(Table 1). These results indicate that the effluent quality
was significantly improved by removing organic/inorganic
materials by biodegradation followed by the coagulation
and filtration. This combined treatment strategy can thus
have better potential to treat less biodegradable effluent
over single-step treatment methods alone (Ma et al.,
2007; Rodrigues et al., 2008). Dewatered alum sludge
formed during coagulation of biological treated wastewater
can further be used for the removal of lead (Chu, 1999) and
other contaminates from the water and wastewater (Yang
et al., 2006). However, some of the residues formed may
be hazardous to aquatic environment. Therefore biotoxic-
ity experiments were also performed.
3.4. Biotoxicity
After treatment of PBW on pilot scale, actute toxicity
was completely removed. Fish exposed to untreated PBW

Table 1
COD and BOD reduction in paper and board mill wastewater by pilot
scale reactor
Treatments COD Total BOD Total
(mg L1) removal (%) (mg L1) removal (%)
SBR operation
Inlet PBW 1975±85 0.0 479±51 0.0
After BT (24 h) 1005±34 49.11 119±21 75.15
After CT + SF 188±17 90.48 37±3 92.27
FBR operation
Inlet PBW 1960±95 0.0 456±4 0.0
After BT (24 h) 880±51 55.10 98±13 78.50
After CT + SF 136±16 93.03 16±4 96.49
Each value is a mean of three treatments and ± indicates variation among
Fig. 1. COD and BOD reduction in PBW by FBR operation on pilot scale them.
in the presence (N, d) and absence (4, s) of additional nitrogen and CT = coagulation treatment; SF = sand filtration; BT = biological treat-
phosphorous. Error bars indicate standard error among three replicates. ment; PBW = paper and board wastewater.
7386 M. Afzal et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 7383–7387
Table 2
Mortality of fish at different concentration of untreated and treated paper and board mill wastewater
12 h
Concentrations Dead Alive
Water control 0 5
Untreated PBW
Undiluted 5 0
50% diluted 0 5
25% diluted 0 5
Treated PBW
Undiluted 0 5
PBW = paper and board wastewater.
(undiluted) died immediately, while 50% and 25% diluted
untreated PBW caused death of two and one fish out of five
after 72 h, respectively. Many authors reported the lethal
effects on the fish exposed to pulp and paper mill wastewa-
ter (Pokhrel and Viraraghavan, 2004). Whereas fish were
remained alive after 72 h when exposed to undiluted trea-
ted PBW in our experiments. Thus combined treatment
of PBW resulted in its detoxification indicating that not
only original toxicity was removed but metabolites pro-
duced also had no toxic effect. These results are shown in
Table 2.
These results indicate that the combined biological–
coagulation and filtration method investigated to treat pulp
and paper mill effluent may effectively be used to reduce
water toxicity and its pollution load.
4. Conclusion
By FBR-coagulation–filtration reactor, COD and BOD
of PBW were reduced to 136 and 16 mg L1, respectively,
which were below the industrial wastewater discharge stan-
dards of Pakistan. However, COD and BOD of PBW were
reduced to 188 and 37 mg L1, respectively, by SBR-coag-
ulation–filtration reactor. The FBR process was, however,
more efficient that SBR to reduce COD and BOD after
alum treatment and filtration. Both of these processes ren-
dered the effluent non-toxic which though was originally
toxic. The pilot scale application of the combined treat-
ments to pulp and paper industry effluents exhibit promis-
ing large-scale perspective.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the Century Paper and Board
Mill Kasur, Pakistan for providing financial support for
this work.
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