1. ZERO LIQUID DISCHARGE THROUGH
PULP & PAPER INDUSTRY
SUBMITTED BY:
SOORAJ GARG
P14EN009
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Dr. Namrita D Jariwala
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
SV National Institute of Technology

2. CONTENT
• Introduction
• Pulp and Paper industry
• Zero Liquid Discharge
• Case Study
• Discussion
• Looking Forward
• References
2

3. INTRODUCTION
• Nowadays, the scarcity of water is a
concerning reality and the environmental
aspects has become a major priority, that leads
the industries towards the method that can
reduce the generation of wastewater or can
reuse this.
• Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD)
– Help to achieve environmental compliance,
– Reduce carbon footprint,
– Create positive public perception,
– Recover high purity water for reuse
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4. 4

5. Staudust 2010 5

6. WASTE WATER TREATMENT PROCESS
IN THE PAPER AND PULP INDUSTRY
Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards EPA, October 2010
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7. ENVIRONMENT IMPACT / CONCERNS OF PULPAND PAPER
MANUFACTURING PROCESS
 The major environmental issues faced by the pulp & paper industry are:
 Control of color and AOX discharge
 Control of release of Non Condensable Gases (NCG’s).
 Disposal of Solid waste viz. Lime Sludge/Fly ash.
 Recycling of process water (instead of freshwater use) is limited by the accumulation of
dissolved matter from wood and other raw materials entering the process.
 Some of the problems associated with contaminant accumulation are deposition and scaling,
foaming, corrosion, stream dead load, and degradation of the end product quality
parameters
 The Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) has launched the Charter on "Corporate
Responsibility for Environmental Protection (CREP)" in March 2003 with the purpose to go
beyond the compliance of regulatory norms for prevention & control of pollution through
various measures including waste minimization, in-plant process control & adoption of
clean technologies.
 Zero Liquid Discharge, Cleaner production are the most focus approaches in this CREP.
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8. ZERO LIQUID DISCHARGE
• Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) is a series of processes (like
membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, evaporation and
crystallization) that extract pure water from industrial effluents,
leaving behind sludge, dissolved solids, suspended particles and
salt crystals
• Pre-requisite for ZLD needs physical and chemical treatment and
followed by biological system to remove organic load.
• The treated effluents can be subjected for concentration and
evaporation.
• The concentration method quite often involves the adoption of
Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Nano Filtration (NF) methods.
• The evaporation methods involve incineration/drying/ evaporation
of effluent in multi effect evaporators (MEE).
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9. NEED OF ZLD
• Most polluting industries such as Pharma, Pulp & Paper, Tanneries,
Textile, Dyeing, Chemicals, Power Plants etc. generate wastewater with
high salinity/TDS.
• Conventional ‘Physico - chemical biological’ treatment does not
remove salinity from the treated effluent. The TDS content is well
above the statutory limit of 2100 mg/L.
• Discharge of saline but treated wastewater pollutes ground and surface
waters.
• Several states in India including Tamil-Nadu are water stressed.
Competing demands for water from agriculture and domestic use has
limited industrial growth.
• TN has taken a lead on ZLD due to absence of fully flowing perennial
rivers Other states such as Gujarat and Karnataka also considering
ZLD.
• MAIN MOTIVATORS – Water Scarcity, water economics,
regulatory pressure.
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10. LEGISLATION RELATED TO ZLD IN INDIA
• Supreme Court directed Polluting pharmaceutical industries near Hyderabad to pay
farmers Rs 4000/ acre annually (between 1992-2002) due to loss of soil fertility
• Tamil Nadu High Court Order mandated ZLD for dyeing, bleaching units, tanneries
and distilleries. (2006)
• Andhra Pradesh High Court order mandated ZLD for 12 large Pharmaceutical units
around Hyderabad discharging 25,000 kld (2008)
• Tamil Nadu Government and Central Government Scheme for a subsidy of Rs. 320
crore (interest free loan) to set up ZLDs in the state following the court order of
2006.(2010)
• Punjab Pollution Control Board mandated ZLD in 8 large electroplating industries
in Ludhiana (2010)
• Punjab Pollution Control Board assisted 500+ small electroplating units in
Ludhiana to set up a CETP with ZLD (2010)
• Rajasthan Government declared a Capital Subsidy on zero liquid discharge based
effluent treatment plant equivalent to 20% of amount paid to the suppliers for the
plant excluding civil work, subject to a maximum of Rs. 1 crore (2014)
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11. APPROACHES TO ZLD
CPCB 11

12. BENEFITS OF ZLD
• To save costs and reduce the capacity needed.
• High operating costs can be justified by high
recovery of water (>90-95%) and recovering of
several by products from the salt.
• A more sustainable growth of the industry
while meeting most stringent regulatory norms
• Reduction in water demand from the Industry
& frees up water for Agriculture and Domestic
demands.
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13. CHALLENGE IN ZLD
• While the benefits of ZLD are significant, adoption of the
technology has two key ‘environmental’ considerations:
 Energy consumption for the evaporation process
 Disposal of the solid waste.
• The energy cost for evaporation accounts for over 90% of the
operational expenses of ZLD
• There is also the issue of dealing with the highly toxic
rejects of a ZLD plant. Presently in Tamil Nadu, there are
designated landfill zones (away from the industrial centers)
for disposal of the sludge.
• This increase the cost for the manufacturers because they
have to store the sludge (often for up to a year) before
transporting it to far off locations, but this also does not
resolve the issue of waste disposal
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15. PROFILE
• Project Assessor/Company – Tamil-Nadu Water Investment Company
Limited (TWIC)
• Client – Tamil-Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited, Karur
• TWIC Role - Implementation and operation of the pilot plant and
preparation of technical and commercial feasibility report as a precursor to
development, financing, implementation and operation of Zero Liquid
Discharge facility.
• Benefits of this Project - The project would enable the Pulp & Paper Mill
reducing its water consumption and further improve on the quality of
treated wastewater used for irrigation.
• Current Status - 120 m3/day pilot plant has been successfully
demonstrated. A full scale plant is now proposed.
• Operation - The pilot plant was erected & commissioned in October
2011. Pilot plant performance were evaluated for 6 months with hard wood
bleach effluent, further evaluations were carried out for another 2 months.
Data generated based on the piloting provided inputs for designing of full
scale plant
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16. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
S.
No
Parameters Range*
1 pH 5.0 - 6.0
2 BOD 900 – 1100
3 COD 2000 – 3400
4 TSS 450 – 1000
5 TDS 4500 – 5800
6 Cl- 1500 – 2000
7 SO4
2- 500 – 600
8 Total Hardness 900 – 1200
* All Ranges are in mg/L except pH
Source : Husain S. I. 26 April 2013 16

17. RESULTS
• Approx. 93.70% of waste was recovered
and only 6.30% of effluent was remain to
dispose.
• TDS level of wastewater was removed up
to 96% in this pilot study
• A High amount of RO water produced
(Approx. 81% of Effluent)that is reused in
agriculture.
• By-products generated, such as, Sulfate
and Lime sludge can be used within the
premises.(A cement Industry is their)
• The high quality brine generated can be
sold off to other industries, such as, dyeing
industries or industrial salt manufacturers.
• For a 10 MLD plant 21.8 tons/day of
Na2SO4 and 36.3 tons/day of lime sludge
is expected.
• water consumption of the pulp mill will
come down from 50 m3/ MT to 43 m3/
MT.
Source : Husain S. I. 26 April 2013
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18. QUALITY OF VARIOUS RECOVERED BY-
PRODUCT
Source : Husain S. I. 26 April 2013 18

19. DISCUSSION
• A first step towards the Zero Liquid Discharge, for recycling of effluent
is Reverse osmosis followed by Nano filtration and Ultra filtration.
• Zero Liquid discharge, for industries like integrated Paper mills, Power
Plants etc. is feasible for environmental concern as well as economic
point of view.
• During this pilot plant study, some hurdles like variation of parameters
such as pH, sulfates, chlorides were observed but however they are
partially stable and provides flexibility and robustness to the study
• ZLD approach is feasible for large industries but achieving partial ZLD
for Small-medium scale industries also possible with reuse of
wastewater with the help of Reverse osmosis and some other membrane
technology.
• Recovery of chemicals in their pure forms from the effluent stream
which can then be re-used in the manufacturing process or sold in the
market. Thus, “it is possible to make ZLD profitable. Even though the
capital expenditure may be high, the breakeven period is within two
years”
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20. LOOKING FORWARD
• Addressing cost Challenges with Existing ZLD
– Choosing of cheaper alternate that adversely affect
– Maintenance - If the ZLD system is Under performing
or shut, factories have to operate at lower capacity or
stop operations
• Fiscal incentives to promote ZLD
– Government can subsidize the initial capital
expenditure of ZLDs
– use of Green Stamps in products to encourage
consumers to move towards sustainable consumption
• To view the effluent not as a waste stream, but as
a resource stream. The cost of treatment then
actually becomes a manufacturing cost
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21. INDUSTRIES AND REGIONS MOST LIKELY TO REQUIRE
MANDATORY ZLD IN THE NEAR FUTURE
• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) surveyed 88
industrial clusters in the country and determined the
level of air, surface water and land (ground water)
pollution of those clusters in 2009.
• As per the CPCB Report (2013), 15 of these clusters have
critical levels of surface water pollution, 5 have critical
levels of ground water pollution and 3 have critical levels
of both surface and ground water pollution
• Out of these 23 clusters, 15 lie in regions where there is
scarcity of ground water which indicates a greater need
for water conservation and treatment in these 15
regions.
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22. CPCB 2013 Interim Report, Central Water Board Ground Water Assessment, 2013
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23. REFERENCES
1. Bhaskaran S., Palanisamy C., Chinnaraj S., “Two Stage Causticizing at TNPL for Effective
Limekiln operation and to reduce silica build up in recovery cycle”
2. Business Standards, IPPTA J, Vol. 22, No.3 July –Sep, 2010, p.
3. Carmen M, Teresa C, and Francisco A. C, ”Recovering wastes from the paper industry:
Development of ceramic materials”, J. of Fuel Processing Technology, No. 103, 2012, pp. 117-124
4. Chakrabarty K, Vamsee K. K., Saha P, Ghoshal A K, “Extraction and recovery of lignosulfonate
from its aqueous solution using bulk liquid membrane”, Journal of Membrane Science 330 (2009)
135–144
5. Dixon G.N., “Achieve Zero liquid Discharge of Industrial Waste”, Samsco water Evaporators.
6. Eloranta, J. ‘Indian pulp & paper industry- challenges and opportunities” In paper International,
January-March 2010, p.12
7. Hussain S.I., “Industrial water recycling in the Textile Dyeing CETP in Tirupur”, IFAT India, Oct.
9-11 2014.
8. Hussain S.I. , “Zero Liquid Discharge Facility for Pulp and Paper Effluents – a case study”, State
level workshop report: Environment friendly Techniques in Pulp & Paper, Vapi Gujarat, 26th April
2013
9. Johnson T, Johnson B, Mukherjee K, Hall A, ”India- An emerging giant in the pulp and paper
Industry”, 65th Appita Annual Conference Rotoura.
10. Kumar, A. “The challenge of finding raw material supplies”. (RISI Indian Seminar, New Delhi,
December 2009).
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