Development of a cost effective wastewater treatment methods for the extraction of pollutants at Medipharm industries E.A Ltd, Kampala Uganda

Abstract

This research study was carried out with the main objective of developing a cost effective wastewater treatment method for the extraction of pollutants such as heavy metals, suspended solids, and pathogens from the wastewater at Medipharm industries E.A Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. Basing on the composition of the wastewater, a number of methods were combined to extract these pollutants from it which included removal of suspended particles by screening with a sieve, coagulation and flocculation, sedimentation and decantation, the heavy metals that were analyzed in this research work included copper, lead and zinc and they were removed from the wastewater by adsorption using banana peels. However, of all the three heavy metals analyzed, copper was present at a very low concentration compared to that acceptable by NEMA whereas lead and zinc were present at very high concentrations and treating the wastewater using the banana peel as an adsorbent was able to reduce their concentrations to an acceptable one. The concentrations of these heavy metals (copper, zinc and lead) were tested using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The effects of time and the amount of the adsorbent used on the rate of adsorption were investigated and maximum adsorption occurred when one gram of the adsorbent was used and the contact time was 2 hours. The percentage rates of adsorption of these metal ions were calculated and graphs plotted.The pathogens that were present in the industrial effluent at Medipharm industries E.A Ltd were killed by subjecting them to Ultra Violet light.During this study, it was found that there are many pollutants in the wastewater at Medipharm and recommendations on reduction of pollution caused by these pollutants were made.