Bioremediation and Detoxification of Pulp and Paper Mill Effluent: A Review

Abstract

Presently, 50-60 m 3 of water needed to produce a ton of paper and around 240-250 chemicals have been identified in effluents, which are produced at different stages of paper making in pulp and paper industry. The pulp and paper industry is typically associated with pollution problems related to high BOD, COD, toxicity, AOX, color, suspended solids, lignin and its derivatives and chlorinated compounds. Although numerous studies have looked ways by various researchers to remove COD, BOD, color etc. of pulp and paper effluents, the problem still persists. Number of microorganisms including bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes has been implicated to degrade the xenobiotic compounds present in pulp and paper mill effluent. This article review the origins and effects of major pollutants present in pulp and paper mill effluents and the progress made in their reduction through fungi, bacteria, algae and enzymes as well as further scope is also discussed.

Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation: A Review of Pulp and Paper Industry Practices and Opportunities

“…These approaches address not only the treatment of such effluent, but also reducing its amount by implementing strategic changes to the operations within P&P mills. Wastewater treatment systems have commonly been understood to function as "end-of-pipe" solutions to environmental issues, whereas the least expensive way to treat polluted water may be to produce less of it in the first place (Stratton et al 2004;Hossain and Ismail 2015). Unit operations within P&P mill water treatment systems have been reported before and can be mentioned here (European Commission 2001;Demel et al 2003).…”

“…Since many wastewater treatment operations are exposed to sunlight, the use of algal treatment has been considered for wastewater from P&P mills. A number of researchers have shown encouraging results for such treatment (Dilek et al 1999; Tarlan et al 2002a,b;Hossain and Ismail 2015). Dilek et al (1999) demonstrated that color removal was mainly a result of metabolism, rather than biosorption.…”

“…Various researchers have reported improvements in biological treatment owing to the addition of selected bacterial cultures (Chandra and Singh 2012;Chen et al 2012;Garg et al 2012;Hossain and Ismail 2015). For instance, Garg et al (2012) showed that dechlorination and detoxification of bleach plant effluent components could be enhanced by the addition of Pseudomonas putida, which is a Gram-negative bacterium.…”

“…Much of the observed variation can be attributed to the different characteristics of wastewater streams emerging from specific kinds of pulping, bleaching, or papermaking processes (Gehm 1973;Hubbe 2007b;Hossain and Ismail 2015;Kamali and Khodaparast 2015). Also, the nature of the effluent will be dependent on how much fresh water is being utilized in the process.…”

“…The consortia of bacteria present in a properly operating wastewater treatment plant may be accompanied by protozoa, fungi, and rotifers (Chakrabarti et al 2008). Such a combination can be expected to allow the system to deal effectively with a wide variety of pollutants, which are likely to shift from hour to hour.Various authors have found favorable effects when using white-rot fungal species to treat pulp mill wastewater and bleach plant effluents (Eriksson and Kolar 1985;Pellinen and Joyce 1990; Duran et al 1994;Gökçay and Dilek 1994;Wolfaardt 1994;Marwaha et al 1998;Saxena and Gupta 1998;Taseli and Gökçay 1999;Sakurai et al 2001;Pokhrel and Viraraghavan 2004;Thakur 2004;Wu et al 2005;Malaviya and Rathore 2007;Freitas et al 2009;Singhal and Thakur 2009;Garg and Tripathi 2011;Kakahi et al 2011;Liu et al 2011;Souza et al 2014;Hossain and Ismail 2015;Kamali and Khodaparast 2015). Eriksson and Kolar (1985) observed much more favorable effects from the addition of a white-rot fungal strain, in comparison to two bacterial mixtures; the fungus promoted more rapid degradation of chlorolignins.…”