General characteristics of the wastewater effluent collected from SAB Miller Factory by CSIR-NEERI and the expected results are as below

The pH of the wastewaters varied in the range of 4.82 to 8.44.

The electrical conductivity (EC) ranging from 145 to 16256 µS/cm.

The TDS contents in the wastewater varied in the range of 101 to 8168 mg/L.

The total alkalinity and suspended solids in the wastewater samples varied in the range of 2 to 15 mg/L and 28 to 1360 mg/L respectively.

The total hardness in the wastewater samples varied from 20 to 320 mg/L

The levels of calcium and magnesium varied from 8 to 64 mg/L and 2 to 38.9 mg/L respectively.

The concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) varied from 38 to 5200 mg/L and 18 to 3200 mg/L .

The concentration of ammoniacal nitrogen and nitrate varied from 5.4 to 12.8 mg L-1 and 0.88 to 32.78 mg L-1 respectively.

The levels of cations with respect to sodium and potassium in the wastewater samples varied from 26 to 83 mg/L and 18 to 47 mg/L respectively.

The levels of anions with respect to chloride varied from 20 to 400 mg/L and  the sulphate varied from 0.2 to 20.1 mg/L in the wastewater.

The level of chloride and sulphate in the wastewater was within the permissible limit for discharge of treated wastewater onto the land for irrigation as per Indian standards.

 The concentration of different heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, copper, nickel, zinc, iron, manganese, arsenic, boron, chromium presented were within the toxicity limit and do not pose any toxicity to plants species.

The  CSIR-NEERI would suggest the disposal of high TDS RO reject wastewater with the High Rate Transpiration System (HRTS). HRTS has already been endorsed by CPCB as a method to dispose the high TDS containing wastewater. This belongs to the group “moderate restriction on use”. Hence, it was decided that to reduce the cost of the treatment processes, the wastewater after treatment in UASB reactor will be taken up for treatment in a specially designed Engineered Constructed Wetland system (ECWs) and utilised for crop irrigation. The attached PFD is self explanatory.