Application of Constructed Wetlands for Treatment of Wastewater from Rubber Sheet

Factory

Udomphon Puetpaiboon, Tossaporn Katepoopong and Siranya Kaewmee

Environmental Engineering Program, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,

Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, 90112, Thailand
Corresponding E-mail: udomphon.p@psu.ac.th

Abstract

Rubber plantation and its products play an important role to Thailand’s economic, as it is one
of the major export products of Thailand. There are many types of rubber products such as
rubber sheet, rubber block, concentrated latex, rubber glove, etc. Wastewater from rubber
sheet production is acidic because of formic acid used in sorting rubber and contains high
concentration of nutrient and organic substances. The objective of this study was to study the
possibility to treat wastewater from a rubber sheet factory using the pilot-scale experiment
constructed wetland (CW). The pilot-scale CW consisted of vertical flow constructed
wetlands (VF) followed by subsurface flow constructed wetlands (SSF) with nut grass
(Cyperus Rotundus Linn.) plantation. The operation of the experiment was done at various
COD loadings of 500, 750, 1,000 and 1,250 kg COD/ha.d, respectively. The experimental
results showed that VF and SSF can be used to treat wastewater form rubber sheet production
and can met the Industrial Effluent Standard enacted by the Pollution Control Department,
Thailand.

Introduction

Rubber plantation and its products are very important to the Thailand economy as it is one of
the major exports of agricultural products [1]. At present, total area for rubber planting in
Thailand is 1.792 million hectares which most of the area is located in the South of Thailand.
An average wastewater generation from production of smoked sheet rubber is found to be
about 4.58 m3/ton of product. The wastewater is collected and treated using series of waste
stabilization ponds. It is apparent that the number and size of ponds are not adequate for
treatment of wastewater, resulting in serious water pollution and offensive odor to the
neighboring villagers. To abate this water pollution by using conventional treatment processes
e.g. activated sludge or anaerobic digestion, the rubber factory may not be able to afford due
to the relatively high investment and operation costs. Therefore, a low-cost and efficient
treatment system such as CW could be a promising alternative as it has been used to
efficiently treat several kinds of wastewater including industrial wastewater. The objective of
this study was to find out the possibility to apply CW to treat wastewater from rubber sheet
production.

Materials and methods

Wastewater from rubber trap from the rubber sheet factory in Songkhla was collected and
transferred once a week to the experimental units at Faculty of Engineering, Prince of Songkla
University, Songkhla Thailand. Wastewater was fed to VF similar to the real situation of daily
wastewater generation. The effluent from VF flowed to SSF by gravity for further treatment.
The size of VF were 1 m x 1.5 m x 0.85 m (width x length x depth). The media used in VF
were crushed rock (0.40 m from bottom) and coarse sand (0.25 m from top of crush rock).
SSF units with dimensions of 1-m width, 3-m length, and 0.8-m depth were constructed, with
0.40 m of coarse sand as media. Void ratio for VF and SSF was found to be 0.2 and 0.3,
respectively. Nut grass (Cyperus Rotundus Linn.) was planted in both VF and SSF units. The
experiments with various COD loadings of 500, 750, 1,000, and 1,250 kg COD/ha.d were
conducted during August to October 2005. Influent and effluent were collected and analyzed
for pH, DO, BOD5, COD, SS, TKN, NH3-N and TP. The parameters were analyzed in
accordance with the procedures outlined in the Standard Methods for the Examination of
Water and Wastewater [2].

Results and discussion

The performance of pilot-scale VF and SSF with Nut grass (Cyperus Rotundus Linn.)
plantation to treat wastewater from rubber sheet production is shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Characteristics of influent and effluent from pilot-scale CW units

Sample pH DO BOD5 COD SS TKN NH3-N TP
(mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L)
Influent 5.4-5.9 0 780-9,625 5,750-18,303 85-460 102.0-157.6 92.0-233.8 177.0-394.2
500* 7.2-7.5 7.1-8.3 1-6 6-29 2-10 0.0-6.7 0.0-0.56 16.1-25.1
750* 7.3-7.6 7.2-8.5 1-4 6-27 7-21 0.0-2.5 0.0-1.1 10.1-20.2
1000* 7.3-7.6 7.1-7.8 1-7 7-33 4-29 0.0-5.0 0.0-1.1 11.5-21.2
1250* 7.4-7.5 7.0-8.1 1-4 10-76 10-23 0.0-4.1 0.0-1.1 10.6-20.4
Note: *: COD loading (kg COD/ha.d)

Conclusion

For pilot-scale constructed wetland experiment, VF followed by SSF with nut grass (Cyperus
Rotundus Linn.) plantation provided high removal of BOD5, COD, SS, and TKN and meet the
effluent standard. Results from the study should be further implemented at the selected
cooperatives.

References

[1] Bank of Thailand, 2004. Thailand’s Economic and Monetary Conditions in 2003.
Available on: http://www.bot.or.th/BOTHomepage/DataBank/Econcond/econreport/annual/4-
29-2004-Eng-i/annual2003.pdf
[2] APHA, AWWA and WEF, 1998, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and
Wastewater, 20th Edition, New York.