The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Zero discharge likely from tanneries

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Thursday, Jun 26, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Zero discharge likely from tanneries

Staff Reporter

Common Effluent Treatment Plant through RO process coming up at Thutipet, Maligaithoppu

— Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

PREVENTING EFFULENTS: Work under way at the common effluent treatment plant under construction at Thutipet near Ambur.

AMBUR: The tannery units at Ambur in Vellore district are likely to achieve zero discharge from September. The Ambur Tannery Effluent Treatment Company Limited has speeded up the work on the Common Effluent Treatment Plant through reverse osmosis process to ensure zero discharge of effluents. This is expected to put an end to the extraction of groundwater by the tannery units.

Officials at the Ambur Tannery Effluent Treatment Company Limited said Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) through reverse osmosis process is being set up at Thutipet and Maligaithoppu in Ambur division. Once the two plants were commissioned, the discharge of untreated effluents into the Palar would come down.

Forty-seven tannery units had been connected to the CETP at Thutipe and 12 units to the CETP at Maligaithoppu. At present, the CETP at Thutipet was getting 1,800 metre cube of effluents for primary treatment every day. However, the primary treatment plant is equipped to handle 2,400 metre cube of effluents a day. This would ensure the primary treatment plant to accommodate excess effluents from the tannery units. There was a possibility of excess effluents being sent to the primary treatment plant during rainy season. The processed effluents would be routed back to the tannery units for their own use.

Officials said the Ambur Tannery Effluent Treatment Company Limited had fulfilled all the parameters required for the CETP. At present, 70 per cent of the civil work had been completed. There was a delay in fully commissioning the CETP owing to some complications encountered in procurement of huge machinery. However, they expressed hope that both the CETP at Thutipet and Maligaithoppu would be fully commissioned from September.

Though all the parameters specified by the State government were being complied with, the Ambur Tannery Effluent Treatment Company Limited had not been able to stick to the parameters on the TDS (total dissolved solvent) front. Once the reverse osmosis process is commissioned, the company would be able to achieve the prescribed TDS level.

The 70 to 80 per cent of the recovered water after treatment would be of higher quality. One of the reasons was that the entire CETP concept was technology-driven. The reverse osmosis process would ensure that the TDS level comes down from 8,000 mg a litre to 500 mg a litre.

The officials said the equipment for the CETP through reverse osmosis process had been procured after exhaustive research. They added that a special team had visited foreign countries to get information on technologies used for treating effluents. The tannery units were connected to the CETP on payment of Rs.17, 000 a month for every 1,000 kg of effluents discharged per day. The amount was collected towards maintenance. The entire system had been automated.

The officials said conductivity metre to measure the TDS level and flow metre to measure the level discharge had been installed at the tanneries. Automatic valves installed at the Ambur Tannery Effluent Treatment Company Limited controlled both the metres.

The CETP through the reverse osmosis process consisted of six components, which included primary treatment plant, membrane bioreactor plant, reverse osmosis plant, collection and distribution system; secure landfill system and evaporator system.

The primary treatment plant had been commissioned in June 2007. The membrane bioreactor plant was in the final stages of completion. Similarly, in the case of reverse osmosis plant, equipment have been installed and piping work was now under progress.

The officials said a five-lakh-litre overhead tank had been constructed for the collection and distribution system. Both the CETP at Maligaithoppu and Thutipet would be commissioned simultaneously.

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