An Overview on Treatment of

Waste Water from Bulk Drug

Industries
Mriganka Sekhar Mukhopadhyay*
Technical Assistant, Civil Engineering Department,
National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, WestBengal,
713209
,..
Dr. Soumya Bhattacharyya
Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Department,
National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, West Bengal,
713209
Dr. Vijay Kumar Dwivedi
Professor & Head, Civil Engineering Department,
National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, West Bengal,
713209
Abstract
Manufacture of pharmaceutical compounds
using chemical synthesis involves a complex series
of many batch processes. The processes generate
wastewaters having high values of BOD 5' COD and
TDS. The paper overviewed present status ofwaste
water and treatment possibility in Bulk Drug
Industries in India. The paper cited characteristics
of waste water and possible treatment systems of
different bulk drug indulitries.
Key Words: Bulk Drug, Aerobic Biological
Treatment, C.O.D., B.O.D.
1. INTRODUCTION
The modus operandi of a pharmaceutical
industry has three main stages: (1) research and
development; (2) conversion of organic and natural
substances into bulk pharmaceutical substances or
ingredients through fermentation, extraction, and!
or chemical synthesis; and (3) formulation and
assembly of the final pharmaceutical product(4).
Chemical synthesis forms the basic process for
preparing the compounds that are used today as
pharmaceutical products. The manufacture of
pharmaceutical compounds through chemical
synthesis mainly involves a complex series of batch
processes where many intermediate stages are
present and many chemical reactions take place
sequentially. The processes use various raw
materials and generate wastes and emissions(1.2,3)
~'Corresponding authour
Mriganka Sekhar Mukhopadhyay
Near Sarbamongala Banka Bridge, Bhatchala Para,
P.O. Sripally, Burdwan, Pin-713103
e-mail: msmukhopadhyay@gmail.com
Phone:09434666881
The wastewaters arise mainly from equipment
cleaning other than the usual manufacturing
streams, such as pump seal waters, waste
scrubbers' wastewaters, boiler blow down and floor
washing. The wastewater may therefore be high in
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical
oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids
(TSS), with a wide range of pH from 1 to 116.
It is clear that the bulk drug manufacturing
industries generate different waste products which
are unfavorable to environment. The widespread
use of pharmaceutical. drugs for various therapeutic
needs resulted in detection of pharmaceutical
chemicals in the environment. To keep the
environment and ecology unaffected, the generated
waste should be treated before disposal to the
environment and the rate of generation of waste
should also be minimized.
2.0 OBJECTIVE OF PAPER
The objective of the present paper is to review
the present situation of characteristics and
treatment possibility of waste water from different
Indian bulk drug industries.
3.0 CHARACTERISTICS OF WASTEWATER
FROM BULK DRUG INDUSTRIES
Based on study of different common effluent
treatment plants of Hyderabad(5,6). average
physicochemical characteristics of the bulk drug as
well as Formulation are given in table 3.1 and 3.2.
Table 3.1 : Typical Physicochemical
Characteristics of Centrally Collected
Wastewater of Common Effluent
Treatment Plant of Hyderabad.(6)
Table 3.2 : Typical Characteristics of
Wastewater from a Bulk Drug Industry in
Hyderabad (the main product being
Terbinafine Hydrochloride).(5)
Volume 2013-14. Number 2 . July 2013
27
SI.No. Parameter Concentration
1.
pH
8.14
2.
COD (mgll) 736Q
3.
BOD (mgll)
1960
4.
Total solids (mgll)
14950
5.
Dissolved solids (mgll)
14000
6.
Suspended solids (mgll)
950
SI.No. Parameter
Quantity
1. pH 7.2-8.0
2. TSS 2800-3000 me:/lit
3. TDS 8500-9000 mg-/lit
4. COD
13000 mg/lit-15000 mg/lit
5. BOD
7000-7500 Jllg/lit
Mriganka Sekhar Mukhopadhyay, Soumya Bhattacharyya & Vijay Kumar Dwivedi
It is observed from table 3.1 and 3.2, that
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Dissolved
Solids (TDS) & Total Suspended Solids (TSS) of the
wastewater samples Were found to be very high.
The BOD: COD ratio is 0.266 and 0.5 respectively
and the pH shows alkaline nature indicating the
complexity of the wastewater in both cases.
Characteristics of wastewater from a bulk drug
industry near Ko-lkata(7) and a molasses
fermentation based bulk drug industry rich in
organic matter are shown in table 3.3 and table 3.4
respectively.
Table 3.3 : Typical Characteristics of
Wastewater from a Bulk Drug Industry in
Kolkata(7)
Table 3.4 : The Average Physicochemical
Characteristics of the Raw Effluent from a
Bulk Drug Industry of Solapur(8)
It is observed from tables 3.3 & 3.4 that the
values of BOD, COD & different types of solid are
very high. On the other hand pH is very low.
4.0 TREATMENT OF WASTEWATER FROM
BULK DRUG INDUSTRIES
The wastewater generated during manufac-
turing of bulk drugs is treated in effluent treatment
plant (ETP), which generates ETP sludge. The
wastes of high calorific value, like distillation
residue, spent carbon, etc are incinerated, which
produces incineration ash. ETP sludge and
incineration ash samples are collected from
industries and are analyzed for relevant
parameters from treatment and disposal point of
view.
Table 4.1: Treatment option vs. parameter
wise removal quality and constraints:
Various types of wastewater streams ae
generated in the manufacturing of bulk drugs. Also,
it was observed that the wastewater streams are very
difficult to treat only biologically<5,6)because of high
concentration ofTDS, TSS, BOD, COD and low ratio
of BOD; COD. Industries are employing energy
intensive (oxygen intensive) biological treatment
systems for meeting the regulatory requirements.
Therefore, considering the observa-tions reported by
previous researchers, the aerobic batch reactor(7)
approach is suggested for the treat-ment of this type
of wastewater effectively. The suggested treatment
option is Aerobic biological treatment followed by
chemical treatment. However, combination of
technologies are required to be applied depending
upon the detailed characteristics.
5.0 CONCLUSION
There is a large number of Bulk Drug units in
India. They use different types of raw materials both
organic and inorganic in nature, the former being
either of synthetic or of animal & vegetable origins.
These industries though use high quality of water but
produce strong effluent. The synthesis of organic
chemicals produces wastewater consisting of organic
and inorganic materials. The waste is usually high in
COD, BOD & TDS. The pH is eith~r very low or very
high. Some of the units have installed wastewater
treatment plants. However, the number of units with
pollution control devices is negligibly small in
comparison to total number ofthese industries.
The bulk drug industries are scattered in a
wide area in India. So it is unwise to think about
the common effluent treatment plant in all areas,
unlike the condition prevailing in Hyderabad where
common ETP has been installed to cover a wide
range of bulk drug industries.
Due to financial constraints of these indus-tries,
we will have to find out such a technology that is easy
to adopt and economically viable. During studies of
the treatment alternatives it was found that a certain
extent of chemical pre-treatment of wastewater
Volume2013-14. Number 2 . July 2013 28
St. Parameter
Quantity
No.
1.
pH
3.5
2. Total solids
364.54 x 103 mg/lit
3. Volatile solids
179.51 x 103 mg/lit
4. Fixed solids
185.04 x 103 mg/lit
5. COD
83593 mg/lit
6.
BOD5
36256 mg/lit
St. Parameter
Quantity
No.
1.
pH
4.2
2. T.D.S.
70200 mg/l
3. C.O.D.
112700 mg/l
4. B.O.D.
62300 mg/l
[S
Thehybrid
TheanaerobicAerobic Theeffectof
option upflow
fixedfilm batchreac- Tendu
anaerobic reactor torfollowed
(Oiospyros
sludge (AFFR)(6) bychemicalmelanoxy-
blanket treatment(7)
Ion)leaves
reactorS) , onwaste-
Parameter waterB)
TOS,mg/I
- -
70% 7.3%
COO,mg/I
65-75% 60-70% 98,2% 4.4%
BOD,mg/I
80-94% 80-90% 97.5% 6.7%
.:'
Mriganka Sekhar Mukhopadhyay, Soumya Bhattacharyya & Vijay Kumar Dwivedi
followed by biological treatment (aerobic) appeared
to be the viable option.
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