10/15/2023

Environmental Pollution Control

ETZC362/PEZC411
Prof. Krishna C. Etika
Associate Professor
BITS Pilani Department of Chemical Engineering
Pilani Campus B.I.T.S-Pilani, Pilani Campus

ETZC362/PEZC411 Environmental Pollution Control

Water Pollution

Sources and Classification of water

pollutants

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Water in India!
• NITI Aayog reported that 600 million people in India encounter
extreme to high water stress.

• With a decadal growth of 17 %, the expanding urban population

largely contributes to water demand and water pollution from
domestic and industrial wastewater discharges.

• Extensive migration of rural population to cities has led to an

upsurge in utility services resulting in overexploitation of ground-
waters.

• Besides expanding population, industrialization accounts for about

a 4 % rise in water demand annually resulting in a substantial
increase in industrial wastewaters volume.

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N.B. Jadeja et.al., Water Security 16 (2022) 100119 BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Water in India
• It is estimated that the total water demand for domestic, industrial and
agricultural sectors will rise to 103 billion cubic metres (BCM) in 2025
and 1447 BCM by 2050.

• Disproportionate distribution of natural water resources due to diverse

geographies, climate change and irregular monsoons, trade and
commerce further challenge water management in India.

• With 21 major cities nearing water depletion and various cities being
subjected to water supply cuts, India now ranks thirteen in the list of
water-stressed countries.

• India is home to 1.4 billion people and the wastewaters generated varies
from 15 to 135 L/per person/day which imposes critical challenges in
developing low-cost wastewater treatment technologies that meet the
current discharge standards.
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N.B. Jadeja et.al., Water Security 16 (2022) 100119 BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Some Calculations!
How much wastewater (approximate) will be generated today in India?

Today’s Population: 1,432,412,510 (As per Worldometer!)

Average wastewater generated : (15+135)/2=75L/person/day

Total Wastewater generated: 1.075 x 1011 L/day

: 1.075 x 108 m3/day
: 3.92 x 1010 m3/year

Annual Precipitation : 4 x 1012 m3/year

Water required 1.03 x 1011m3/year in 2025

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Outline
– Water resources
– Origin of wastewater
– Classification of water pollutants
• Oxygen demanding waste
• Disease causing agents
• Synthetic organic compounds
• Plant nutrients
• Inorganic chemicals and minerals
• Sediments
• Radioactive substances
• Thermal discharges
• Oil

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Water Resources

Water is vital natural resource which is essential for a

multiplicity of purposes.
Water used
 Drinking
 Domestic uses
 Industrial cooling
 Power generation
 Agriculture (irrigation)
 Transportation
 Waste disposal

 Main source of water in India is rain

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Hydrologic Cycle

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Hydrologic Cycle
• Natural cycle : More than 97% of water in biosphere is in oceans, the
remaining 3% is found in continents and atmosphere
• More than 70% of this is in glaciers and icecaps
• Water on which human depend such as lakes, streams and ground water
accounts for less than 1% of total supply
• The hydrologic cycle of the biosphere depends on the reciprocity of
evaporation and precipitation.
• Liquid water on earth goes to the atmosphere as vapor by evaporation
and transpiration of the plants. The vapor is returned to Earth as rain or
snow over the oceans.
• Oceans lose more water by evaporation than they gain by precipitation.
• The difference is made up by runoff and seepage from the continents,
over which there is more precipitation than evaporation.
• Continents lose more than 50% of the precipitation through evaporation
and remainder is stored in lakes, rivers or ground water which is later
discharged into oceans.
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Water for Human Use

• Each year about 4,23,000 km3 water is evaporated, and

the same quantity is precipitated.
• Amount of water temporarily stored & later discharged
into oceans is 37000 km3
• This is the only water is available for human use!
• Minor modification by diverting or regulating the runoff
and storage.

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Season–wise distribution of
rainfall in India
Duration Approximate % of the annual rainfall
January-February 2.6
March–May 10.4 Scarcity of water
June–September 73.7 …….. Flood
October–December 13.3
100%

Estimated Rainfall
 17.5% water evaporates
 20% water runs off into surface water bodies (river + pond + … )
 53.5% water percolates into the soil
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Rainwater Fate

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Indian Context

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S.K. Jain, CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 102, NO. 7, 10 APRIL 2012, 964-67 BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Sources of Water
Alternative water source for human
 Desalinated sea water (for drinking purpose)
 Reclaimed waste water (for irrigation, sanitary and fire
fighting)
Utilization of water:
 1. Irrigation:
 Water requirement for the irrigation is the highest.
 Water requirement for irrigation varies with the climate and the type of crop being
raised.
 Surface water used for irrigation may be diverted through canals.
 Dams can be used to make water available during the shortage time period.

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Domestic water supply

 Domestic water requirement also varied from the season

to season.
 The water requirement in the cities is much higher than
villages.
 Water use in the cities is directly proportional to the
standard of living.
 The per-capita water consumption is the criteria which
define the standard of living in a particular area.
 It is very difficult to find it correctly as public do not fully
rely on the municipal water supply.

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Power Generation

 Water is converted into steam in the thermal power

plants and the turbines are rotated to produce electricity.
 The principal water demand is in the cooling
requirements in the boilers.
 The heated water some times discharged in the open
and it leads to the water loss through the evaporation.
 On a rough estimate in a 500MW power plant about 40
million litres of water would evaporate per day.
 As the electricity demand is increasing the water
wastage would increase.

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Industrial water use

 Industry is much dependent on adequate water supplies.

 Water requirement also varied from industry to industry.
 Major water consuming industries are steel, paper and
pulp, textiles, chemicals and petroleum refining.
 With the increase of the industrialization the water
demand is also going to increase.

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Origin of Wastewater
Waste water (by the origin)
• Point sources: collected by a network of pipes or channels
and conveyed to a single point of discharge into the
receiving water
• Domestic sewage
• Industrial wastes
• Non-point sources: characterized by multiple discharge
points
• Agricultural runoff
• Urban runoff
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Water Pollution
Domestic and industrial wastes pollute the aquatic
systems.
 75 to 80% of India’s population is exposed to unsafe
drinking water.
 Fertilizers are getting discharged into water bodies and
causing eutrophication.
 Pesticides are entering the food chain.
 Fish are being killed in millions along sea coasts.

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Waste water characteristics

• Varies widely from industry to
industry
• Because of the large number
of pollutant substances,
wastewater characteristics
are not usually considered on
a substance by substance
basis.
• Rather, substances of similar
pollution effects are grouped
together into classes of
pollutants or characteristics
• The specific characteristics
will affect the treatment Perry’Chemical Engineers’ Handbook, 8th Edition
techniques
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Classification of water
pollutants
1. Oxygen demanding wastes
2. Disease–causing agents
3. Synthetic organic compounds
4. Plant nutrients
5. Inorganic chemicals and minerals
6. Sediments
7. Radioactive substances
8. Thermal discharges
9. Oil

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Classification and sources

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Types of Water Pollutants

Disease causing Agents

 Water carries pathogenic micro-organisms, which come
from tanning and meat packaging industries. Some
bacteria are water-borne. These disease causing agents
cause cholera, typhoid, dysentery.
 Viruses are also found in water, which are responsible
for polio, infectious hepatitis and fever.
 Water also plays an indirect role in the transmission of
diseases like malaria, yellow fever.
 Presence of pathogens make the water unfit for drinking,
at high concentration, water may also be unsafe for
swimming and fishing

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Types of Water Pollutants

Synthetic Organic compounds (Pesticides, detergents)

 Pesticides and detergents are not biodegradable and may
persist for long periods reaching objectionable levels in water
or in aquatic life. Wide variety of these compounds are not
being detected.
Pesticides
 Insecticides
 Herbicides
 Fungicides
Pesticides result primarily from surface run off from agricultural
lands, water discharge by pesticide manufacturers and by
other means. Because of their world wide usage, nearly all
the rivers and oceans of the world contain pesticide residues.
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Limiting standards for some common pesticides in drinking water

are given as:
Pesticides Max Permissible limit (mg/l)

Aldrin 0.017
Chlordane 0.003
DDT 0.042
Dieldrin 0.017
Endrin 0.001
Heptachlor 0.018
Heptachlor Epoxide 0.018
Lindane 0.056
Toxaphene 0.005
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Detergents

 The basic active ingredient in detergents is the surfactant or

surface active agent.
 It lowers the surface tension and allows dirt particles to
become linked to water. The dirt is subsequently lifted or
floated from the soiled garment during the washing process.
 Surfactant concentration as low as 1 ppm produce foam in
rivers and in sewage treatment plants. Although these
concentration are non-toxic to humans, the presence of
surfactants gives on off-taste to drinking water.
 The presence of surfactants reduces the rate of oxygen
absorption in water.
 The acceptable concentration for surfactants in water supplies
has been set at 0.5 ppm.

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Plant Nutrients

 Nitrogen and Phosphorus are essential elements which are

required by plants and animals for maintaining their growth
and metabolism.
 Small amount of nitrates and phosphates occur in all aquatic
systems and these are sufficient to maintain a balanced
biological growth.
 Huge amount of nitrates and phosphates may enter the water
bodies directly from the manufacture and use of fertilizers,
and from the processing of biological materials such as food
and textiles, or via domestic sewage treatment plants.
 Thus water unusually large concentration of nutrients are
present in water bodies, an excess growth of algae appears.

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 This produces an unsightly green slime layer over the surface

of the water body and subsequently leads to eutrophication.
 The slime layer reduces light penetration and restricts
atmospheric reoxygenation of the water.
 The dense algal growth eventually dies and the subsequent
biodegradation produces an oxygen deficit which can result in
foul-smelling anaerobic conditions.
Inorganic chemicals and Minerals
Inorganic acids
Inorganic salts
Metal and metal compounds

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Inorganic Acids

Source:
a)Mine drainage (mining of sulphur bearing ores
containing lead, zinc, copper and iron sulphide
(pyrite)
b)Acidic rainfall
Effects:
a)Acids cause corrosion of metals and concrete
b)Acids are fatal to fish

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Inorganic Salts

Source: Industrial effluents, salt from mines or from oil

wells, and ocean salts.
Effects:
• Salts causes hardness of water
• Hard water can cause scale formation in pipes, boiler
tubes and other industrial equipments
• Fatal to fish.

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Metals
Cadmium
Source: waste streams from pigment works, textiles, electroplating,
chemical plants etc.
Permissible Level: 0.01 mg/l (drinking water)
Effects: It is not easily detectable in filtered water, particularly if the pH
is neutral or alkaline.
Itai-Itai disease in Japan was probably due to cadmium
Chromium
– Source: Waste water of plating operations, paint and dye
operation, wastewater from textile, ceramic and glass industry.
– Permissible level: 0.05 mg/l (Drinking water)
– Effects: Many plant species are adversely affected by chromium

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Metals
Lead
Source: Effluents from battery manufacture, printing, painting.
Permissible Level: 0.05 mg/L (Drinking water)
Effects: Is a cumulative poison and responsible for cancer.
Mercury
Source: Effluents of Pesticides, Fertilizer Paint and paper,
Chlorine industry
Permissible Limit : 0.002 mg/l (Drinking water)
Effects: Most toxic aquatic pollutant effects on photosynthesis
rate.

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Sediments
Sediments include soil, sand and mineral particles
Source:
a) By storms and flood waters
b) Deposits of sewage sludge, pulverized coal ash,
industrial solids.
Effects:
a) Pumping equipments, power turbines are affected.
b) Reduces the amount of sunlight, food etc. for water
plants, fish and other aquatic bodies.

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Radioactive substances
Source: Wastes of uranium refining, thorium mining,
wastes from nuclear power plants, and from industrial
use of radioactive materials.
Effects: Radioactive substances can enter humans with
food and water, and get accumulated in blood, and
thyroid gland, liver, bone and muscular tissues.

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Thermal Discharge

Source:
 Power plant industry uses large qualities of water for
cooling purposes and directly discharge to water bodies.
 Consequently, the water temperature is increased, and
hot water layer at the top and cold water layer at the
bottom are formed.
 The hot layer denies the oxygen transfer from
atmosphere to cold water.
 Thus, DO levels falls rapidly. And at high temperature the
metabolic activity of micro-organisms is increased.
 So, the increase of temperature results to decrease of
DO level and to increase of oxygen consumption.

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Thermal Discharge
Effects:
a) Fish death
b) An increase in temperature also increases the toxicity of
some chemical pollutants.

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Oils
o Oil spills make up about 12% of the oil that enters the
ocean. The rest come from shipping travel, drains and
dumping.
o An oil spill from a tanker is a severe problem because
there is such a huge quantity of oil being spilt into one
place.
o Oil spills cause a very localised problem but can be
catastrophic to local marine wildlife such as fish, birds
and sea otters.
o Oil cannot dissolve in water and forms a thick sludge
in the water. This suffocates fish, gets caught in the
feathers of marine birds stopping them from flying
and blocks light from photosynthetic aquatic plants.
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https://www.water-pollution.org.uk/oil-pollution-in-water/ BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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