Treatment and Recycling of Wastewater from Sugar Mill

Sugar is the most important food supplement of our daily diet. During the production of sugar, large volume of water is used by sugar mills for processing, and produces large amount of wastewater. The sugar mill wastewater have color, organic compounds, low pH, high temperature, BOD, COD, total dissolve solid (TDS), sludge, press mud and bagasse etc. If this wastewater is released in the environment before the treatment, it will cause harmful effect on aquatic life, animals, plants, human being and also change the soil properties. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the wastewater before their disposal. Three important treatment methods i.e. physical, chemical and biological are employed to treat the wastewater. Biological treatment of sugar mill wastewater has several significant advantages over other available methods. Treatment of sugar mill wastewater mainly affected by pH and temperature of effluents, biomass during the reaction, reaction time, type and speed of reactions, aerobic or anaerobic conditions, presence of catalyst, inhibitor, nutrients and concentration of the sulfide and its other compound in the wastewater. The treated wastewater can be reused in the industry for processing and may also be used for ferti-irrigation for agriculture or other purposes like compost and biofertilizers within the limit prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board. Reuse of treated effluent can reduce the fresh water demand in various sectors. Treated effluent contains well balanced chemicals with low toxic metal ion. The diluted treated effluent have shown significant increase in chlorophyll, carotenoids, total sugar, amino acids, protein contents and suitable for seed germination and seedling growth over the bore well water and undiluted treated effluent.