BEWARE OF OILY EFFLUENT: A Headache For Manufacturers That Needs Innovative Solutions

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Oily effluent is a huge problem. We all know for a fact that oil and water don’t mix.

And yet, these two substances will end up in the same place a lot of the time: in effluent produced by manufacturing facilities.

Water becomes effluent after going through some industrial process. It can contain many different substances, including oil—and it can be extremely harmful if it ends up in the wrong place.

Oil in your effluent can lead to:

1. Increased health risks for humans and animals exposed
2. An inability to meet stringent norms of state and national pollution control boards
3. Environmental damage

These problems all stem from one thing: the presence of oils, fats, grease, and sludge in your effluent. That’s why it is crucial that you have a system for managing these contaminants in place. Regularly testing your effluents will ensure that you stay ahead of any issues before they become critical.

What is Effluent?

When we think of effluent, the first thing that comes to mind is wastewater. However, the term ‘effluent’ is not restricted only to water because it can also be a gas or solid matter. In simple terms, effluent is any waste coming out from industrial facilities.

Regardless of the type of effluent, one thing remains the same — it is not suitable for the environment. Thus, all industries should follow regulations to control such industrial discharges.

Why should we treat effluent?

We are creating more waste each year. In fact, according to The Water Project, humans generate 1.3 trillion gallons of sewage every day — enough to fill the Empire State Building in New York City 32 times!

But that’s not even the worst part: we treat only 10% of this waste before dumping back into rivers and oceans worldwide. That means that we release roughly 1 trillion gallons of untreated sewage in our oceans every single day! Let that sink in for a moment.

The importance of treating effluent for manufacturers

Reducing the impact on our environment

The environmental effects of untreated effluent are devastating, killing fish and wildlife and harming our local ecosystems. Manufacturers have to safely treat the effluent from factories, sewage plants, and other industries before we release it back into the water system.

Reducing contamination for human consumption

Polluted water is not safe for human consumption. Even if you don’t live near one of the many industrial areas that release untreated effluent into waterways, this pollution still has the potential to contaminate your drinking supply.

A manufacturing facility generates wastewater through cleaning and production. These facilities should have effluent treatment plants (ETP) to treat this wastewater before discharging it into the environment.

Effluent Treatment

The main objective of effluent treatment is to reduce the concentration of pollutants (such as suspended solids, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, and heavy metals in the water) to safe levels for humans and the environment. ETPs achieve this by using various separation, filtration, and oxidation methods that remove and destroy contaminants in the effluent.

What is an effluent treatment plant (ETP)?

An effluent treatment plant (ETP) is a process used to treat wastewater from various sources, including domestic, commercial, and industrial. Typically, this wastewater is high in biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). We need ETPs to treat this water since we cannot release it into public waterways like rivers and streams.

The manufacturing industries need water for different purposes like washing raw materials and finished products, processing raw materials, cooling or heating processes. They discharge vast amounts of effluents into the environment.

An ETP has physical and biological units arranged in series or parallel configurations. Certainly, these units help remove harmful pollutants like solids suspended in the water, organic pollutants, toxic chemicals, and ions from the effluent.

Aerobic and Anaerobic ETP

There are two types of ETPs – aerobic and anaerobic. Firstly, aerobic treatment systems add oxygen to the waste water, which helps break down organic wastes by aerobic microorganisms. Secondly, anaerobic treatment systems have no oxygen present in the wastewater; these systems use anaerobic bacteria to break down inorganic waste. Usually, ETPs have both aerobic and anaerobic processes as they complement each other.

One can judge the amount of industrialization in any country by the number of ETPs. For example, in India, effluent treatment plants are common because of the size of our industry. However, the problem is that manufacturing companies do not effectively use these ETPs, thus causing much damage to both humans and the environment.

How does oil get in the effluent of a manufacturing facility?

Oil in the effluent water of your manufacturing facility is a potential sign of failure. Above all, it’s also a sign that you’re polluting the environment and potentially harming people, animals, and plants.

The answer to the above question depends on your specific operations. For example:

1. Your production process may use heat transfer fluids to mix with the water that cools or heats it.
2. If your facility uses oils for lubrication, those oils can leak into the system if there’s a malfunction or maintenance error.
3. You might have a leak in an oil tank.
4. Oil may be present as a by-product of electroplating, galvanizing, chemical processing, and cutting fluids.
5. It can also come from leakage of lubricants and oils used in pumps, compressors, and other machinery.

The presence of free oil in wastewater will cause problems for the ETPs.

How do we remove free-floating oil from effluent treatment plant (ETP) of a manufacturing facility?

State Pollution Control Boards

The regulations around the discharge of industrial waste are becoming more stringent. Pollution control board authorities now expect all manufacturing companies to have an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) as part of their license conditions. They need water monitoring systems installed before they can discharge their wastewater.

Pollution control authorities want to know what is going into our waterways. Monitoring oil in wastewater is essential for compliance with the pollution control board’s stringent norms. Having a system to watch this can save you money by reducing water treatment costs and improving your environmental impact.

Tube Skimmer- An ideal solution

The best solution for removing oil is to use an effective tube skimmer. This device removes oil from water by using a moving oleophilic tube in direct contact with the water’s surface to capture the floating oil. Moreover, the ceramic wipers remove the oil sticking to the tube.

Additionally, it is also suitable for removing heavier oils such as diesel, lubricating oils, and crude oil. Certainly, the unit operates continuously, has no moving parts submerged in your liquid, and requires minimal maintenance.

If you need help in deciding what factors to consider while selecting an effective oil skimmer, please click here.

Practical challenges in removing oil from ETP

Oil content as KPI

One might argue that we indirectly address the issue presence of oil in the effluent since it affects the BOD/COD. The argument is correct; however in practice ETP manufacturers and owners can cut a lot of corners while selecting the best procedure to handle the oil. Nobody bothers about the oil content as ETP owners do not consider it a key performance indicator (KPI).

Chemicals for removing oil

The solution provider suggests the use of certain chemicals which degrade oil & grease and other organic waste build-up and turn it into carbon dioxide and water. One might think this is such a simple solution, but wait! All these chemicals have a cost that adds to the company’s monthly expenses. Also, for removing the chemicals from the water needs an additional mechanism.

Quick-fix approach

Daily, the oil quantity in the ETP would be ‘not worth considering.’ However, in many cases, the presence of oil becomes a problem when it accumulates over time. As a result, a blame game between the customer and the solution provider starts when this happens. Moreover, engineers temporarily solve situation using quick fixes but the same problem arises again after some time.

Wrong design to lower costs

As you can imagine, the field of ETP/WTP is highly competitive, with many companies claiming they can provide the best solution at the lowest price. In reality, the answer each one offers is more or less the same since the technology is the same.  Hence, often, price is the only deciding factor. More importantly, either the solution provider does not provide or under-designs to keep it within budget. In this process, they mostly cut corners, and usually, the first axe falls on the oil removal process.

We often read about effluent treatment plants failing to remove pollutants and polluting the environment. Moreover, these problems go unnoticed under the patina of a society thriving on economic growth and diminishing natural resources. As a result, there is an urgent need to create awareness among citizens, environmental activists, and policymakers to take up these challenges through an integrated approach.

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