REMOVAL OF CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD), TOTAL ORGANICCHEMICAL (TOC) AND TOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS) USINGANAEROBIC AND AEROBIC DEGRADATION OF PHARMACEUTICALWASTEWATER

The purpose of this study is to determine the removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Organic Chemical (TOC) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) from an influent and effluent by using a biological degradation of pharmaceutical wastewater. The selected pharmaceutical wastewater was obtained from the Satire Pharmaceuticals (M) Sdn. Bhd which is located at Bandar Baru Seri Iskandar, Perak. This project was divided by two (2) phases, Phase I and Phase II. For Phase I, the treatment system involved is only an aerobic treatment and two reactors have been used. These reactors are Reactor A (short sludge age) and Reactor B (long sludge age). The parameters involved are COD and TOC. COD is a method to measure the chemical oxygen demand equivalent of the organic material in wastewater that can be oxidized chemically using dichromate in acid solution. The Total Organic Chemical (TOC) can be used as a measure of wastewater pollution characteristics. For Phase II, both aerobic and anaerobic treatment systems were performed but the author focus only on anaerobic treatment system. The parameters involved were COD and TSS. TSS is· a measure of the settleable solids. and non-settleable solids in wastewater. The average differences of COD values between influents and effluents for both reactors Reactor A and Reactor B after addition of new influent (on 5 October) was 1743 mg!L and 1540 mg!L. Moreover, the percentage(%) removal of COD for both Reactor A and Reactor B were 85% and 75% respectively. The average differences of TOC between influents and effluents for both reactors Reactor A and Reactor B were 545 mg!L and 501 mg/L. In addition, the percentage (%) removal of TOC for both Reactor A and Reactor B were 85% and 78% respectively. For Phase II, the average difference of COD between influent and effluent was 834 mg/1. The percentage (%)removal of COD was 90%. For TSS, the average values for both influent and effluent were 19 mg/1 and 66 mg/1 respectively. There was no removal in TSS since the values of effluent were higher than influent. Additionally, after its undergoing aerobic treatment system, the results were better. This has shown that both treatment systems are the best method to treat the pharmaceutical waste water efficiently and effectively.