Pollution from pharmaceutical industry

Mainly syllabus include following point:

1. Water pollution
2. Air pollution-
 Dust cleaner
 Wet scrubber

AIR POLLUTION
 It consists of particulates or impurities that are suspended in or conveyed by moving
stream of air.
 Pollutants exists in liquid form called as mist gaseous fumes, solid particulates including
dust.
 Air pollution results in----
1. loss of valuable product.
2. an atmospheric nuisance or safety hazards
3. damage to quality of product or plant or equipment

Origin of air pollutants

 Particles formed by mechanical disintegration- gives micron size particles.
o may be formed by pulverizing, crushing or grinding
 Particles created by coarse disintegration- micron size
o formed by jaw crushing or tumbling
 Particles created by a physical change of state such as sublimation or chemical
reformation or from intensive heating or melting operation.- submicron size
 Furnace operation- in steel and nonferrous industry- produce exhaust or combustion
gases containing metallurgical submicron fumes.

Pollution in Pharmaceutical industry

 Dust is one of the greatest concern.
 Dust of any kind, either outside or inside can cause serious problems
 Dust inside the plant can cause cross contamination, few materials are capable of causing
toxic reactions even present in trace amounts. e. g penicillin
 Penicillin production should be isolated from main building to prevent cross
contamination and thus any toxic consequences.
Purpose of air pollution control equipment
For recovery
Desirable in many industries e.g. in fertilizer industry ammonia recovery is desirable, in steel
industry blast furnace produce iron oxide which is collected and reused.
For disposal
Non- recoverable organic constituents are disposed off by collecting in settling ponds
and removed in the form of sludge at periodic interval or by combustion.

Selection of pollution treatment method:

Selection of the specific treatment method for prevent of pollution following factor should be
consider:
 Location
 Space requirement for instillation of equipment-
 Complicated fumes
 Temperature

Location-
Proximity of the gas collector to the gas source:-Reasonable close location minimizes side
problems such as- conveyance of dust particles which could settled in ducts.
-cool spots which cause condensation and ultimate corrosion
-minimizes pressure drop loses which occur when gas is drawn through long distance.

Space requirement for instillation of equipment-

 Location of the equipment on the roof, near the ground, indoor or outdoor
 Large bog collectors or precipitators usually instilled on the roof.

Complicated fumes-
 Consist of heavy particles, tar vapors or organic solvents.
 Create fire hazards and dust accumulation
 Therefore short duct systems are preferred if not possible the spraying sloping ducts to
direct drainage toward scrubber.

Temperature-
 When handling extremely hot gas-collector must be placed at some distance to allow
cooling in transit, which improves collection efficiency and protects filter fabric.
 Sudden cooling not desirable as it causes wet-dry condition line in which solids
accumlates at the cooled duct walls.
 Optimum temperature for electrostatic precipitators range from 350-500 deg F.
 Presence of SO and SO in the air require special consideration as these can create
2 3
corrosive atmosphere
Equipments
1. Filter bags
2. Mechanical collectors- cyclone separator
3. Wet scrubber- Venturi scrubber
4. Electrostatic precipitators

1. Filter bags
Filter bags are attached to the cyclone separator to remove dust.
A no. of cylindrical bags made up of cotton or wool are suspended
in metal casing.

Fi
g. filter bags

2. Cyclone separator

Fig.Cyclone separator
A cyclone is centrifugal separator where the particles are swung as a result of their mass
by the centrifugal force to the outside.
Entering air is automatically forced a rapidly spinning double vortex movement, so-called
"double-vortex". This double vortex movement exists from the outside stream, that flows spirally
down and the inside stream that flows spirally up. On the border area of both flows the air flows
from one to the other. The particles present in the air flow is swung to the outside wall and leaves
the separator by means of a reception space situated to the base. 
3. Wet Scrubber-Venturi scrubber

Fig. Venturi scrubber

 It Consists of venturi tube with the gas flowing through the tube at very high velocity.
 At or just upstream from the throat the water is introduced at low pressure and distributed
around the circumference to give curtain of liquid across the throat.
 The gas colloids this liquid so that the sheet of water is disrupted and liquid particles are
rapidly accelerated.
 Velocity of the gas decreases in the diverging section, the small particles in the gas are
wetted by finely divided liquid droplets leading to coalescence of particles.
 The discharge from the scrubber goes to a cyclone separator where coalesced particles
are removed from the gas.

4. Electrostatic precipitator

When the gas containing fine particles or droplets of liquid it subjected to strong unidirectional
electrostatic field, gas becomes ionized and suspended particles and liquid droplets gets charged
which can drift toward the same electrode as ionized gas.
 Fig. Electrostatic precipitator

 The most basic precipitator contains a row of thin wires, and followed by a stack of large
flat metal plates, with the plates typically spaced about 1 cm apart. The air stream flows
through the spaces between the wires, and then passes through the stack of plates.
 A negative voltage of several thousand volts is applied between wire and plate. If the
applied voltage is high enough an electric discharge ionizes the air around the electrodes.
Negative ions flow to the plates and charge the gas-flow particles.
 The ionized particles, following the negative electric field created by the power supply,
move to the grounded plates.
 Particles build up on the collection plates and form a layer.
 Gas flow is usually parallel to the plate.
 In the pipe type, electrodes are axial and flow of gas is upward through pipe.
 Collected dust falls into the hopper at the bottom.
Water Pollution
Treatment of waste water, whether from industrial or domestic sources is accomplished with
certain basic processes.

Application varies with characteristic of waste of the waste water that govern the design criteria.
Waste treatment
Solid removal:-- Discharge of effluents containing suspended solid to streams is a violation of
water quality standards and such materials must be removed.
Large floating solids- removed by screening and these vary from pieces of rags and wood.
Heavy solid – called as Grit include sand, mill scale, fly ash, coke fines and many abrasive
materials.
Finely divided solids- are those settling slowly and too fine to be removed by screening

Steps to remove insoluble solid materials - include

First screening
Second grit removal
Third sedimentation and floating
Screening-
Various screens such as bar screen and vibrating screens are used.
For removal of large particles- particle size is reduced prior to subsequent treatment of
the waste treatment. Grinders are used for this purpose.
Grit removal-
By differential settling

Oil water separation-

Floating oil is removed either by emulsification or skimmed off by a conventional sludge
scrapper skimming mechanism.
Flocculation-
 - Often combined with sedimentation when solids are light and tend to coalesce or when
chemicals are added to produce flocculants particles.
- the process takes place in a basin equipped with the means of slow agitation or stirring,
which causes the smaller particles of solids to be attracted to the larger one by mechanical
collision or electrochemical phenomenon
- flocculants are removed by means of clarification.

Light weight fibrous solids and grease-

Removed by floatation, which involves application of air, with the air bubbles carrying
that material to the surface, where it is removed by skimmers.
Two methods- Pressurized Aeration and Vacuum
Pressurized Aeration-
Waste stream is subjected to aeration from a blower under pressure exceed 25 psi. The
pressure is then released in the floatation chamber and dissolved air forms bubbles which carry
suspended material to the surface.
Vacuum method-
Aerated waste is passed into enclosed chamber, where vacuum is applied to cause air to
be release to the surface.

Sludge may be thicken by these methods.

Polyelectrolytes may be added to increase the sludge yield which are the pumped from
clarifiers and likely to contain high percentage of water.
these sludge are further treated to thicken and remove toxic materials.
Sludge treatment-
Anaerobic digesters- If waste water has BOD of 1000mg/lit then this method is employed.
the sludge is subjected to anaerobic digestion in an enclosed tank 80-100 deg F
temperature. The gas produce is usually flammable therefore either should be burned in waste
gas burner or utilized for generation of power or heat.

Aerobic digestion- Intensified aeration of sludge over an extended period of time will result in
some thickening and mineralization of organic matter by oxidation of volatile solids. Digestion
can take place in an open tank, air supply by blowers/mechanical aerators, agitation by turbines,
no gas collection and heating equipment.
Sludge dewatering- Usually immediate process and final disposal of sludge by incineration or
burial.
Dewatering may be accomplished by air drying on sand beds or use of vacuum filters,
filter press or centrifuge

Removal of dissolved organics

Organic wastes, following solid separation, must be further treated to remove dissolved unstable
constituents.
Done by biological oxidation in which cultures of microorganisms are maintained to feed upon
the organic matter and thus destroy it.
Three general process are employed-
1)Stabilization in large ponds – in which waste is retained for several weeks and algae are
allowed to grow for oxidation of waste.
2) Passing the waste through beds of course media- known as trickling filters are beds containing
rock or slag where waste is evenly distributed and bacteria and other microorganisms are
cultured specifically for waste being treated.
3) Subjecting the waste to intensive aeration-known as activated sludge process. The reaction
tanks place in tanks equipped with mechanical surface or turbine aerators. Waste is pulled in the
tanks and microorganism culture is suspended.

Removal of dissolved solids

Process include distillation, electrodialysis, and reverse osmosis.
Chemical treatment- many waste water are too acidic or too alkaline to be discharge to a stream,
and neutralization is required.
Others, such as chromium plating waste, have constituents which may be removed by reaction
specific with precipitants.
Sulphites are precipitated as Ca salt by addition of lime.
Chlorides and sulphates if present in high concentration then removed by ion exchange

Water pollution in Pharmaceutical Industry

Pharmaceutical manufacturing represents all the various operation that are involved in
production of final product which include mixing, drying, compression, coating, filling etc.
In general none of these operations would be considered to be serious water pollutants because
they do not use water on any basis that would cause pollution.
In spite of this , however there are a no. of places where water pollution can be expected--

Wash up operations- always suspects

Central wash up area provides better control to the
possibility of haphazard dumping of tail ends of harmful material to the sewer.

Dust and fume scrubbers –used in connection with building ventilation system on dust and fume
generating equipment which otherwise can be a source of water pollution

Waste Treatment Facilities in connection with Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry

In most instances biological treatment with trickling filters or an activated sludge process meet a
pharmaceutical plant requirements, but the choice must be made carefully, in terms of the type of
wastes to be treated, volume and the completeness of the treatment that is required.
Septic anaerobic digestion tanks for smaller plants
Trickling filters to medium to larger plants
Activated sludge for larger plants.
Acid waste
High acid waste can seriously damage a sewer by destroying the material used to seal the sewer
joints.
It may be necessary to monitor and record the pH of the sewage entering the municipal water.
All plants wastes are controlled to pH 6 before entering the municipal sewer.
Neutralization is carried out using sodium hydroxide or calcium carbonate.
Sulphuric acid or hydrochloric acids are used to treat alkali waste.
Flammable solvents
Another potential hazard in dumping the material in any sewer is the possible presence of
inflammable solvents in the waste. This carelessness could lead to explosion and fire hazards and
can seriously damage and disrupt the plant sewage system. Instillation of recording explosion
meter to monitor the sewer atmosphere for flammable concentration of vapors at the point where
effluents enters the public sewer. This instrument has a carefully regulated propane flame to
sense the presence of combustible vapor in the stream.

Chemical production
Problems in this area are classified as normal and exceptional.
Normal problems- possible pollution due to wastes, wash-up, ejector condensate etc.
Exceptional problems- unplanned situation like spills, that find their way to floor drains, leakage
through heat exchanger that results in chemical entering a cooling water system.
Extreme problem- a fire or explosion, results in extensive, unanticipated water pollution

Wastes and wash water from chemical plant are not always compatible with the biological
system of waste treatment of plants.
Sometimes it is possible to acclimate sewage bacteria to certain chemicals, there are many
instances where chemical wastes are too concentrated or too toxic to make this feasible.
Chemical waste were biological treatment system is not feasible then waste solvents can be
frequently recovered or incinerated.

When working with chemical waste that are not biologically treated, it is usually desirable to
keep them as concentrated as possible, otherwise increased volume will lead to increase in cost
of treatment.
If large amount of diluting water is present, then is necessary to reduce it by evaporation prior to
further treatment.
Deep well disposal is a very practical method for disposal of many chemical wastes that are
unsuited to biological treatment.
Fermentation process
Fermentation is an important production process in the pharmaceutical industry.
This is used for production of antibiotics and many of steroids.
The most troublesome and the most likely water pollutant of fermentation industry is SPENT
BEER
Spent beer is the fermented broth from which the valuable fraction, antibiotic or steroid, has been
extracted.
Spent beer contain a large amount of organic material, protein and other material.
Discharging this in water without treatment can cause serious water pollution.
Methods for treating liquid fermentation waste are generally biological in nature, i.e. trickling
filters or activated sludge.
Sometimes spent beer can be evaporated to dryness and dry material can be used as animal feed.
Another method of disposal of spent beer is spray irrigation

Radiological products
A highly specialized area of pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Where nuclear materials are involved, the standards are largely established by Atomic Energy
Commission.
All the effluents from such unit, including sanitary waste, is piped to large, closed, underground
tanks.
When one tank is full, the wastes are directed into another tank.
The full tank is monitored until radiation levels falls to a safe limit and then pumped to regular
sewage system.
R & D Labs
Quantities of materials being discharged by R&D are small as compare to volumes generated by
production.
The most common problem is flammable solvents which can solved by discharging them in
special waste solvent containers.
Miscellaneous
Spills of both liquids and solid chemicals not only inside but in surrounding plant area have been
frequent cause of water pollution.
Often such spills are washed down the nearest drain. Also, too regularly, the cleanup of spill is
done very quickly and expeditiously by the worker responsible to get rid of the evidence.
Appropriate instructions and training to worker regarding problems and disposal of waste is
highly essential to minimize the pollution problems.