Medical Wastewater Treatment Process

1. Background Introduction

The treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater has complex components, high concentration and salinity, high color and toxicity, often containing a variety of organic pollutants, many of which are difficult to biodegrade and can remain in the environment for a considerable period of time. Especially for the highly hazardous organic pollutants (carcinogenic, teratogenic, mutagenic) that pose a great threat to human health, even when the concentration in water is below level 10-9, traditional pharmaceutical wastewater treatment processes are difficult to meet discharge standards. The key to its handling lies in:

1) High phenol content

The phenol content in wastewater is high, some as high as 2-12g/L. Due to the poor biodegradability of phenols, extraction or other physicochemical methods are required for pretreatment and recycling. When its content is high, it still has great recycling value.

2) High content of recalcitrant organic matter

Wastewater contains a large amount of recalcitrant organic compounds such as benzene, naphthalene, and heterocyclic compounds, which are difficult to directly treat and meet standards using conventional aerobic activated sludge processes. Therefore, before aerobic treatment, it is necessary to improve its biodegradability and increase the BOD: COD value.

Our company's pharmaceutical wastewater upgrading technology, with adsorption technology as its core, is a special adsorbent and its application process developed specifically for the upgrading or reuse needs of biochemical treatment effluent. This adsorbent belongs to a special adsorption resin, and its pore structure, specific surface area, and functional groups are artificially controlled and designed based on the common problems of wastewater. The leader of the relevant technical team has worked for several well-known foreign companies, responsible for the research and development of products, technologies, and processes related to wastewater deep treatment and reuse. At present, our company's related products and technologies are further upgraded based on previous related technologies, with better performance, easier operation, and lower operating costs.

2. Technical characteristics

• Special adsorbents for deep treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater have high decolorization efficiency and no color reversal. Good removal efficiency and stable performance for COD and other pollutants.

• Simple process, easy operation, low labor intensity, small footprint, and low investment. Low operating costs, stable and reliable treatment effects, and can withstand certain water quality fluctuations and impacts.

• Mild usage conditions, long equipment lifespan, simple maintenance, and minimal subsequent investment. This process produces no hazardous waste and no secondary pollution, making it a green and environmentally friendly solution.

3. Application Cases

Case: 300t/d heterocyclic wastewater from a pharmaceutical group in Jiangsu: COD content was 45000mg/L, reduced to 3000mg/L, with a removal rate of 93.3%. At the same time, it removes difficult to biodegrade heterocyclic organic compounds, improves biodegradability, and provides guarantees for subsequent biochemical standard treatment. In addition, the original incineration treatment cost of over 1000 yuan per ton of wastewater treatment was reduced to 200 yuan after switching to adsorption treatment.

Table 2 Comparison of Raw Water and Outlet Water

Figure 2: Raw water (left) and final effluent (right)

4. Application Fields

• Biochemical effluent COD, ammonia nitrogen, total phosphorus, chromaticity, and other standards have been raised in industries such as coking, pharmaceuticals, and fermentation.

• Deep treatment of biochemical wastewater and reuse of reclaimed water in other industries.