Treatment of Soap and Detergent

Industry Wastes
 INTRODUCTION

In modern times, the soap and detergent

industry, although a major one, produces relatively

.small volumes of liquid wastes directly

However, it causes great public concern when its

products are discharged after use in homes,
.service establishments, and factories
The increase in consumption of detergents (in
particular, their domestic use) and the

tremendous increase in production of

surfactants are the origin of a type of pollution
whose most significant impact is the
formation of toxic or nuisance foams in rivers,
.lakes, and treatment plants
 Classification of Surfactants

• Anionic Surfactants

• Cationic Surfactants

• Nonionic Surfactants

• Amphoteric Surfactants
 Sources of Detergents in Waters and
Wastewaters
Soaps and detergents -
The additional industrial origin of detergent-
pollution notably results from the use of
surfactants in various industries, such as textiles,
cosmetics, leather tanning and products, paper,
metals, dyes and paints, production of domestic
soaps and detergents, and from the use of
detergents in commercial/industrial laundries
.and dry cleaners
The contribution from agricultural activities is -
due to the surface runoff transporting of
surfactants that are included in the

formulation of insecticides and fungicides.

their use in cleaning public spaces, sidewalks, -

.and street surfaces
 IMPACTS OF DETERGENT
PRODUCTION AND USE
Impacts in Rivers (The formation of foam also
constitutes trouble and worries for river
navigation- Also, when winds are strong,
masses of foam are detached and transported
to great distances in the neighboring areas,
causing problems in automobile traffic by
deposition on car windshields and by
.rendering the road surfaces slippery
masses of foam floating on river waters
represent an esthetically

objectionable nuisance and a problem for the

.tourism industry
Impacts on Public Health For a long time,
detergents were utilized in laboratories for
the isolation, through concentration in the
foam, of mycobacteria such as the bacillus of
Koch (tuberculosis), as reported in the annals
.of the Pasteur Institute
This phenomenon of extraction by foam points
to the danger existing in river waters where
numerous such microorganisms may be
present due to sewage pollution. The foam
transported by wind could possibly serve as
.the source of a disease epidemic
In fact, this problem limits itself to the
mycobacteria and viruses (such as those of
hepatitis and polio), which are the only
microorganisms able to resist the disinfecting
power of detergents. Therefore, waterborne
epidemics could also be spread through
airborne detergent

.foams
 Impacts on Biodegradation of Organics

Surfactant concentrations in polluted

natural water bodies interfere with the
self-purification process. possibly
introducing anaerobic conditions.
Impacts on Wastewater Treatment
Processes

Impacts on Drinking Water odor, taste

Toxicity of Detergents Trout, animals

 Production of Soaps and Process
Wastes
These products are soap flakes and
powders , bar soaps, and liquid soap.

Flakes and Powders

there is no wastewater effluent.
a survey of the industry showed that most
operating plants either recycled any

wastewater to extinction or used dry

clean-up processes. Occasionally, water
will be used for clean-up.
Bar Soaps

In many cases, the entire bar soap processing

operation is carried out without generating a
.single wastewater stream
The equipment is all cleaned dry, without
any washups. In other cases, due to
housekeeping requirements associated
with the particular bar soap processes,
there are one or more wastewater
.streams from air scrubbers
The major waste streams in bar soap
manufacture are the filter backwash,
scrubber waters, or condensate from a
vacuum drier, and water from
.equipment washdown
The main contaminant of all these streams is
soap that will contribute primarily BOD and
.COD to the wastewater
Liquid Soap
In making liquid soap, water is used to
wash out the filter press and other
equipment.
According to manufacturers, there are very
few effluent leaks. Spills can be recycled
or handled dry. Washout between
batches is usually unnecessary or can be
recycled to extinction.
The production of the surfactant is
generally a two-step process:

(a) sulfation or sulfonation,

and

(b) neutralization.
Oleum Sulfonation/Sulfation

This process is normally operated continuously

and performs indefinitely without need of
.periodic cleanout
A stream of water is generally played over
pump shafts to pick up leaks as

well as to cool the pumps. Wastewater

flow from this source is quite modest,
but continual.
Air–SO3 Sulfation/Sulfonation

there are usually several airborne sulfonic acid

streams that must be scrubbed, with the
wastewater going to the sewer during
sulfation.
SO3 Solvent and Vacuum Sulfonation

the process is essentially free of

wastewater generation.
Sulfamic Acid Sulfation

Washouts are the only wastewater effluents

from this process as well.
Chlorosulfonic Acid Sulfation

The effluent washouts are minimal.

Neutralization of Sulfuric Acid Esters and
Sulfonic Acids

occasional leaks and spills around the pump and

valves are the only expected source of
.wastewater contamination
 Wastewater Characteristics

The wastewater streams are usually

expected to contain trace or larger
concentrations of all raw materials used
in the plant, all intermediate compounds
produced during manufacture, all final
products, coproducts, and byproducts,
and the auxiliary or processing chemicals
.employed
According to a study by the USEPA , which
presents estimates of industrial
wastewater generation as well as related
pollution parameter concentrations, the
wastewater volume discharged from
soap and detergent manufacturing
facilities per unit of production ranges
from 0.3 to 2.8 gal/lb (2.5–23.4 L/kg) of
product.
The reported ranges of concentration

(mg/L) for BOD, suspended solids, COD,

and grease were 500–1200, 400–2100,
400–1800, and about 300, respectively.
The large variability in the ranges is
generally due to the heterogeneity of
products and processes in the soap and
detergent industry.
The information presented in this section
has been taken from the U.S. Code of
Federal Regulations (40 CFR), containing
documents related to the protection of
the environment , in particular, the
regulations contained in Part 417, Soap
and Detergent Manufacturing Point
Source Category, pertaining to effluent
limitations guidelines and pretreatment
or performance standards.
The effluent guidelines and standards
applicable to this industrial category
include: (a) the best practicable control
technology currently available (BPT); (b)
the best available technology economically
achievable (BAT); (c) pretreatment
standards for existing sources (PSES); (d)
standards of performance for new sources
(NSPS); and (e) pretreatment standards for
new sources (PSNS).
For all subcategories of the soap and
detergent manufacture industry, there are
no pretreatment standards establishing
the quantity and quality of pollutants or
pollutant properties that may be
discharged to a publicly owned treatment
works (POTW) by an existing or new point
source.
However, practically all the soap and
detergent manufacturing plants in the
United States discharge their
wastewaters into municipal sewer
systems.
 Wastewater Treatment Methods
The soap and detergent manufacturing industry
makes routine use of various physicochemical
and biological pretreatment methods to control
the quality of its discharges. A survey of these
treatment processes is presented in Table 11,
which also shows the usual removal
efficiencies of each unit process on the various
pollutants of concern.
the origin of major wastes is in washing and
purifying soaps and detergents and the
resulting major pollutants are high BOD and
certain soaps (oily and greasy, alkali, and high-
temperature wastes), which are removed
primarily through air flotation and skimming,
and precipitation with the use of CaCl2 as a
coagulant.
Flotation or Foam Separation
One of the principal applications of
vacuum and pressure (air) flotation is in
commercial installations with colloidal
wastes from soap and detergent
factories. Wastewaters from soap
production are collected in traps on
skimming tanks, with subsequent
recovery floating of fatty acids.
Foam separation or fractionation can be used
to extra advantage: not only do surfactants
congregate at the air/liquid interfaces, but
other colloidal materials and ionized
compounds that form a complex with the
surfactants tend to also be concentrated by
this method.
An incidental, but often important, advantage
of air flotation processes is the aerobic
condition developed, which tends to stabilize
the sludge and skimmings so that they are
less likely to turn septic. However, disposal
means for the foamate can be a serious
problem in the use of this procedure.
It has been reported that foam separation
has been able to remove 70–80% of
synthetic detergents, at a wide range of
costs . Gibbs reported the successful use
of fine bubble flotation and 40 mm
detention in treating soap manufacture
wastes, where the skimmed sludge was
periodically returned to the soap factory
for reprocessing.
According to Wang , the dissolved air
flotation process is both technically and
economically feasible for the removal of
detergents and soaps (i.e., surfactants)
from water.
Activated Carbon Adsorption

Colloidal and soluble organic materials can

be removed from solution through
adsorption onto granular or powdered
activated carbon, such as the particularly
troublesome hard surfactants.
Refractory substances resistant to
biodegradation, such as ABS, are difficult
or impossible to remove by conventional
biological treatment, and so they are
frequently removed by activated carbon
adsorption.
The activated carbon application is made
either in mixed-batch contact tanks with
subsequent settling or filtration, or in
flow-through GAC columns or contact
beds.
Obviously, because it is an expensive
process, adsorption is being used as a
polishing step of pretreated waste
effluents.
much better results of surfactant removal
have been achieved with adsorption than
coagulation/ settling.

Wang used both powdered activated carbon

(PAC) and coagulation/settling/

DAF for successful removal of surfactants.

Coagulation/Flocculation/Settling/Flotation

the coagulation/flocculation process was

found to be affected by the presence of
surfactants in the raw water or
wastewater.
Such interference was observed for both alum
and ferric sulfate coagulant, but the use of
certain organic polymer flocculants was
.shown to overcome this problem
However, chemical coagulation and
flocculation for settling may not prove to
be very efficient for such wastewaters.
Wastes containing emulsified oils can be
clarified by coagulation, if the emulsion is
broken through the addition of salts such
as CaCl2, the coagulant of choice for
soap and detergent manufacture
wastewaters .
Also, lime or other calcium chemicals have
been used in the treatment of such

wastes whose soapy constituents are

precipitated as insoluble calcium soaps of
fairly satisfactory flocculating (“hardness”
scales) and settling properties.
Treatment with CaCl2 can be used to

remove practically all grease and suspended

solids and a major part of the suspended BOD.

Using carbon dioxide (carbonation) as an

auxiliary precipitant reduces the amount of
calcium chloride required and improves
treatment efficiency.
The sludge from CaCl2 treatment can be

removed either by sedimentation or by

dissolved air flotation. For monitoring and
control of chemical coagulation,
flocculation, sedimentation and flotation
processes, many analytical procedures and
testing procedures have been developed.
Ion Exchange and Exclusion

The ion-exchange process has been used

effectively in the field of waste disposal. The
use of continuous ion exchange and resin
regeneration systems has further improved
the economic feasibility of the applications
over the fixed-bed systems.
One of the reported special applications of
the ion-exchange resins has been the
removal of ABS by the use of a Type II
porous anion exchanger that is a strong
base and depends on a chloride cycle.
This resin system is regenerated by
removing a great part of the ABS
absorbed on the resin beads with the
help of a mixture of hydrocarbons (HC)
.and acetone
Other organic pollutants can also be
removed by ion-exchange resins, and the
main problem is whether the organic
material can be eluted from the resin
using normal regeneration or whether it is
economically advisable to simply discard
the used resin.
Wang and Wood and Wang successfully used
the ion exchange process for the removal of
.cationic surfactant from water
The separation of ionic from nonionic
substances can be effected by the use of
ion exclusion.
Ion exchange can be used to purify glycerine for
the final product of chemically pure glycerine
and reduce losses to waste, but the
concentration of dissolved ionizable solids or
salts (ash) largely impacts on the overall
.operating costs
Economically, when the crude or sweet

water contains under 1.5% ash, straight ion

exchange using a cation and anion mixed
bed can be used, whereas for higher
percentages of dissolved solids, it is
economically feasible to follow the

ion exchange with an ion-exclusion system.

For instance, waste streams containing
0.2–0.5% ash and 3–5% glycerine may be
economically treated by straight ion
exchange, while waste streams
containing 5–10% ash and 3–5% glycerine
have to be treated by the combined ion-
exchange and ion-exclusion processes.
Biological Treatment

Regarding biological destruction, as

mentioned previously, surfactants are
known to cause a great deal of trouble
due to foaming and toxicity in municipal
treatment plants.
The behavior of these substances depends on
their type, that is, anionic and nonionic
detergents increase the amount of activated
sludge, whereas cationic detergents reduce
it, and also the various compounds
decompose to a different degree.
The activated sludge process is feasible for

the treatment of soap and detergent

industry wastes but, in general, not as
satisfactory as trickling filters.
On the other hand, detergent production
wastewaters have been treated with
appreciable success on fixed-film process
units such as trickling filters.
Also, processes such as lagoons, oxidation
or stabilization ponds, and aerated
lagoons have all been used successfully
in treating soap and detergent
.manufacturing wastewaters
Wang et al. have developed innovative
biological process and sequencing

batch reactors (SBR) specifically for

removal of volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) and surfactants.
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION