Development of a reliable alkaline wastewater treatment process: optimization of the pre-treatment step

Alkaline waters produced by caprolactam plants polymerizing the fibres of nylon-6 are characterized by a very high alkalinity, salinity and COD values, in addition to the presence of recalcitrant organic molecules. These characteristics make alkaline wastewaters very difficult to treat; so the development of the suitable sequence to carry out in a depuration process appears of great interest. The proposed general process consists of three main steps: first, pre-treatment for the acidification of the polluted stream, second, a successive extraction of the bio-recalcitrant compound (noted as cycloexanecarboxysulphonic acid (CECS)) and a final biological treatment. In particular, this paper deals with the pre-treatment step: it consists of an acidification process by means of sulphuric acid with the concomitant precipitation of black slurries in the presence of different substances, such as solvents, CaCl2, bentonite, several flocculants and coagulants. The aim of this study is to set an experimental procedure, which could minimize fouling problems during sludge filtration. The use of additives like bentonite seems to give the best results, because it allows good COD reductions and a filterable precipitate, which avoids excessive fouling problems of the experimental apparatus.