Prospects of Combined Peroxide Oxidation, Aeration and Adsorption-Filter Treatment Processes in Abatement of Pollution Characteristics in Cassava Processing Wastewater

Abstract

The study investigated the efficacy of a treatment sequence consisting of a peroxide oxidation, aeration and adsorption-filtration at four different carbon depths in controlling pollution parameters from cassava processing wastewater. Analysis of results obtained revealed that concentration of selected physico-chemical parameters of effluent drawn from the established treatment lines were all within the Federal Environmental Protection Agency's standards for discharge to water bodies with the exception of Total Suspended Solids (TSS). Statistical analysis of results using ANOVA showed that the effect of carbon depth on concentration of considered parameters was not significant (p 0.05) for iron, manganese, calcium and zinc while all other parameters were significant. The separation of effluent parameter means done by Duncan multiple range tests also revealed that the means of values from the four columns were not significantly (p > 0.05) different for iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, zinc and phenol ions while those for colour, nitrate, TDS and TSS solids were all significantly different. All other considered parameters however had two or more parameters sharing mean values that were grouped as not being significantly different. The particle index comparison for the treatment processed revealed that the dual filter media columns exhibited a more stable working when it came to turbidity treatment. The study concluded that the effluent from the sand filter and 5 cm carbon depth dual media treatment process could be safely discharged to watercourse or used for irrigation purposes.