Hybrid strategies for the treatment of latex-like wastewater from industries

Abstract

Water, a vital part of daily life, is given special attention. Sadly, the wastewater generation rate is growing faster than its recycling rate due to various anthropogenic activities. The need for innovations in treating wastewater to meet freshwater requirements encourages the application of different advanced techniques in wastewater treatment. The advanced oxidation process, a tertiary treatment technique, has proven successful for many industrial effluent treatments. This chapter discusses the use of Fenton’s oxidation coupled with ultrasonication (US) as an efficient treatment for treating industrial wastewater containing emulsion polymers. The predominant presence of emulsion polymers in the untreated wastewater from industries, such as coatings and dispersions, creates a latex-like wastewater with characteristics similar to the latex wastewater produced in the rubber processing industries. This type of wastewater is typically characterized by very high TSS and COD values, thus making it impossible for conventional wastewater treatment plants to successfully reduce the COD/BOD values below acceptable discharge limits. In this chapter, an attempt is made to treat industrial wastewater samples containing emulsion polymers by combining sonolysis and Fenton oxidation. Photo-Fenton oxidation (PFO) and US techniques were carried out in different combinations, and the best COD reduction of ~97% was achieved by a combination featuring an initial 30min US (36kHz, 500W) followed by PFO (40min) and simultaneous US (36kHz) and PFO (40min). This corresponds to approximately 50% reduction in treatment time which can be deployed for treating latex-like wastewater in industries, whereas a COD reduction of 92% is achieved with PFO alone in 70min. However, the initial rate of COD reduction is more prominent with the combination of sonication. Hybrid processes such as US-PFO could be viable and effective options for achieving the best results in the treatment of industrial wastewater. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.