Industrial Wastewater Applications: Pharmaceutical

In the pharmaceutical industry various process technologies are required to treat wastewater with high COD, suspended solids and organic loadings. Depending on the specific site conditions and the treated effluent requirements, unit process technologies typically selected by Wehrle on a pharmaceutical wastewater project would include MBR technology, the Wehrle MBR-HS process specifically.

Pharmaceutical wastewater can be especially high in mixed liquor suspended solids (10000 - 20000 mg/l) and COD (2000-4000 mg/l). It can also contain high ammoniacal nitrogen loads, with up to 1000 mg/l TKN. Traditionally, conventional physical, biological and chemical treatment processes have been used to process this effluent prior to its discharge to sewer or directly to the environment, but advanced Wehrle MBR-HS technology now provides a highly effective solution.

Further savings can be realised by using Low Energy Crossflow operation on larger MBR systems for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.

For further information visit our Technology pages and our Resource Centre.