Pascorp Paper Industries Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrading

- Case Study
Ir. David C. Keow (CGE Systems Sdn. Bhd., davidkeow@po.jaring.my), H.G.A. Ebbers
(CGE Systems Sdn. Bhd., ebbers@po.jaring.my) and Md Puad Haji Salleh (Pascorp Paper
Industries Bhd.)
CGE Systems Sdn. Bhd.,
A-6-3, Block A, Plaza DWI-Tasik, Bandar Sri Permaisuri,
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Wilayah Persekutuan
Tel: 603-91711603
Fax: 603-91712603
Pascorp Paper Industries Bhd.
Lot 1A, Bentong Industrial Estate,
28700 Bentong,
Pahang
Tel: 609-2223355
Fax: 609-2222266

ABSTRACT
The paper reviews the upgrading work of the Wastewater Treatment Plant at Pascorp Paper
Industries. The objective of the project is to double the capacity of the wastewater treatment
plant from a throughput of 9,000 m3/day to 18,000 m3/day.
The existing treatment process comprises of physical and chemical treatment systems for fiber
and suspended solids removal, followed by two-stage biological treatment. The raw effluent is
having COD of 2,085 mg/l, BOD of 943 mg/l and suspended solids of 793 mg/l.
The upgrading work involved the installation of a fiber screening system, a dissolved air
flotation (DAF) system, an aeration basin, a secondary clarifier and a sludge de-watering
system. The existing plant was kept in full operation during the construction of these new
treatment components.
The treatment plant is capable of reducing the COD, BOD and SS at the final treated effluent
to consistently meet with the DOE Standard A. The key to the success of the wastewater
treatment plant can be attributed to:
1
The effectiveness of the pre-treatment system in reducing the suspended and
colloidal solids to below 100 mg/l prior to the 2-stage biological system
2
The temperature of the wastewater is reduced to below 39 0C before the activated
sludge system
3
Adequate residual Dissolved Oxygen and sufficient nutrients supplied at the
activated sludge system
4
Low operating condition at the activated sludge system with an F/M ratio of 0.25
Keywords: Recycle Paper Mill, Wastewater Treatment plant

INDEX
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 3
UPGRADING WORK ............................................................................................................... 4
TREATMENT PLANT COMPONENTS OPERATING CONDITION................................... 5
Coarse Screenings .................................................................................................................. 5
Flow Equalization .................................................................................................................. 5
Fine Screenings ...................................................................................................................... 5
Chemical Coagulation and Flocculation ................................................................................ 6
Dissolved Air Flotation Clarification..................................................................................... 6
Trickling Filter Tower............................................................................................................ 7
Activated Sludge System ....................................................................................................... 7
Secondary Clarifier ................................................................................................................ 8
Sludge de-watering................................................................................................................. 8
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 9
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................................... 10

Figure 1. Static screens............................................................................................................... 5

Figure 2. Dissolved air flotation system..................................................................................... 6
Figure 3. Aeration tank............................................................................................................... 7
Figure 4. Secondary clarifiers .................................................................................................... 8
Figure 5. DAF outlet and Final discharge COD for March and April 2007 .............................. 9

Table 1. Summary of upgrading work ....................................................................................... 4

Table 2. Raw and final treated effluent BOD and SS data......................................................... 9

INTRODUCTION
Pascorp Paper Industries, a leading recycle paper mill in Malaysia, produces mostly medium
paper for use in corrugated carton box manufacturing.
Wastewater is generated at the mill during the paper making process and it is being treated at
the wastewater treatment plant. The wastewater treatment plant was initially built in early
1993 with the design capacity of 5,000 m3/day. The treatment plant was upgraded to 9,000
m3/day in year 2000. Due to the latest production increase, the treatment plant was again
upgraded to18,000 m3/day in 2007. CGE Systems was awarded the project to design, build
and commission the system. The construction of the new treatment plant began in December
of 2005. The plant was fully commissioned in April 2007.
The treatment processes in the new treatment plant comprises of the screenings process for
fibers removal, followed by clarification process for the removal of suspended and colloidal
solids, and finally with a two-stage biological system for removal of the dissolved organics.
The characteristics of the raw wastewater are:
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) = 2,085 mg/l
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) = 943 mg/l
Suspended Solids (SS) = 793 mg/l
Since the plant commissioning, the wastewater treatment plant is able to consistently treat the
raw wastewater to meet the Malaysian Department of Environment Standard A discharge
limit of COD less than 50 mg/l, BOD of less than 20 mg/l and SS of less than 50 mg/l. The
average final discharge results for 2007 are:
COD = 25 mg/l
BOD = 2.2 mg/l
SS = 2.2 mg/l

UPGRADING WORK
The upgrading work involved capacity expansion without making changes to the treatment
process at the plant. Table 1 illustrates the components in the treatment plant that were
upgraded.
Table 1. Summary of upgrading work

Treatment Plant
components
Coarse screen
Equalization Tank
Fine Screenings

Coagulation

Flocculation

Dissolved Air
Floatation (DAF)
Trickling Filter
Tower
Activated sludge
Secondary clarifier
Sludge de-watering

Existing System

Component Added

New System

One unit 20 mm slots

automatic bar screen
880 cubic meters
holding capacity
6 units static arc
screens at 1.5 m
width each with 0.5
mm slots openings
Coagulation reactor
with high speed
mixer
Flocculation reactor
with slow speed
mixer
One unit 9.8 m
diameter DAF
1162 m3 of crossflow media
5,915 m3
2 units 16 m diameter
circular clarifiers
One unit 2 m width
belt press

Non

One unit 20 mm slots

automatic bar screen
880 cubic meters
holding capacity
12 units static arc
screens at 1.5 m
width each with 0.5
mm slots openings
Inline coagulation

Non
6 units static arc
screens at 1.5 m
width each with 0.5
mm slots openings
Converted to inline

Non

One unit 9.8 m

diameter DAF
Non
5,162 m3
1 unit 16 m diameter
circular clarifier
One unit of 2 m
width belt press and
one unit of 30 m3/hr
centrifuge

Flocculation reactor
with slow speed
mixer
Two units 9.8 m
diameter DAF
1162 m3 of crossflow media
11,077 m3
3 units 16 m diameter
circular clarifiers
Two units of 2 m
width belt press and
one unit of 30 m3/hr
centrifuge

During the installation of the new treatment components, the treatment plant was kept in full
operation. The limited space available also posed a significant challenge in carrying out the
upgrading works. The plan involved constructing and commissioning each of the individual
treatment components in stages in order to limit the site activities and avoid interruption to the
plant operation.

TREATMENT PLANT COMPONENTS OPERATING CONDITION

Coarse Screenings
Raw effluent from Paper Machine 1 & 2 is discharged into a channel and flows by gravity to
the wastewater treatment plant. An automatic bar screen with 20 mm opening slots is installed
inside the channel to remove larger objects that otherwise would clog the downstream
pumping system.
Flow Equalization
The equalization tank has a retention capacity of about 70 minutes. The tanks help in
attenuating the flow and contaminant loads from the raw effluent discharge.
Fine Screenings
The static arc screen system has a total filtration width of 18 m. The loading rate at the screen
is 42 m3/(daym). Usable fibers are captured at the screen and discharged into fiber holding
tank located below. The fiber sludge is recycled back to the mill for reuse and blended with
the waste paper at the stock preparation area. It is estimated that between 10 to 15 metric tons
of fibers are recycled each day.

Figure 1. Static screens

Chemical Coagulation and Flocculation

9 mg/l of alum dosed in line into the piping system connecting the static arc screens and
flocculation reactors. The mixing of the coagulant with the wastewater is with the turbulence
created at the fittings by the flow in the piping system.
Retention time in the flocculation reactor is 12 minutes. 6 mg/l of anionic polymer is dosed
into the reactor and mixed with the wastewater by a slow mixer operating at 40 rpm.
Dissolved Air Flotation Clarification
Flow from the flocculation reactor is equally split to the two 9.8 m diameter DAF systems.
Each of the DAF is operating at the surface loading rate of 164 m3/(m2day). 150 m3/hr of
clarified water is recycled from the DAF effluent to the air dissolution vessel before mixing it
with the incoming wastewater. The air dissolution system is operated at a pressure of 5 bar.
The minute air bubbles in the recycled stream attach to the solid flocs and float to the surface
of the DAF. Floating sludge at the DAF is scraped into a trough and discharged to the sludge
holding tank.
The DAF system is producing clear effluent with suspended solids of less than 100 mg/l.

Figure 2. Dissolved air flotation system

Trickling Filter Tower

The trickling filter tower is operated in the roughing mode with wetting rate at about 4.2
m3/(hrm2) and COD loading rate of 16.6 kg COD/(daym3).
The trickling filter tower is also capable of reducing the temperature of wastewater from as
high as 45 C to below 39 C. This is essential as it allows the biological activity at the
activated sludge system to operate at optimum level.
The raw wastewater from the mill is deficient in nutrients. Both nitrogen (N) and phosphorus
(P) is dosed at the DAF effluent before the biological system. N is supplied by adding 27 mg/l
urea (46% N) to the wastewater. P is supplied by adding 19 mg/l Mono Ammonium
Phosphate (MAP, 27% P) to the wastewater. A blend of micronutrients (Sulfur, Potassium,
Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, Sodium, etc.) is also added to enhance the biological activities in
the system.
Activated Sludge System
The activated sludge system is operating at a Food/Micro organism ratio (F/M ratio) of 0.25
day-1 and Mixed Liquor Volatile Suspended Solids (MLVSS) level of 2,000-2,800 mg/l. The
air is supplied by the root blower system with fine bubble diffusers located at the base of the
aeration tanks. The air supply system is capable of maintaining the dissolved oxygen level at
above 3 mg/l within the second half of the aeration tanks.

Figure 3. Aeration tank

Secondary Clarifier
The secondary clarifiers are operating at surface loading of 29.8 m3/(m2day) and solid
loading of 104 kg/(m2day).
Returned Activated Sludge (RAS) from the clarifiers is sent back to the head of the aeration
tanks at the flow rate between 1 to 1.5 times of the incoming flow rate.
The secondary clarifiers are capable of producing treated effluent with suspended solids of
less than 50 mg/l.

Figure 4. Secondary clarifiers

Sludge de-watering
Sludge from the DAF is de-watered at the belt presses whereas the waste activated sludge
from the activated sludge system is de-watered at the centrifuge decanter.
The belt presses are able to produce sludge cake with dryness of about 30% solids content
while the decanter can produced the sludge cake with dryness of about 22% solids content.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The final treated COD at the treatment plant since the plant commissioning from March 2007
to end of April 2007 is illustrated in Figure 5. Daily DAF effluent COD is added to show the
effect of higher loading to the biological system on the final discharge.
2500

50

2000

40

1500

30

1000

20

500

10

0
1-Mar-07

16-Mar-07

31-Mar-07

15-Apr-07

Final Discharge COD [mg/l]

DAF outlet COD [mg/l]

DAF outlet
Final discharge
3 per. Mov. Avg. (DAF outlet)
3 per. Mov. Avg. (Final discharge)

0
1-May-07

Date

Figure 5. DAF outlet and Final discharge COD for March and April 2007

COD measured at the DAF outlet (TF inlet) varies from 500 to 2000 mg/l. The biological
system effectively reduces this wide range of organic loads to below the standard A level of
50 mg/l.
The monthly BOD and suspended solids for the final treated effluent is shown in table below.
Average raw effluent data is shown as well.
Table 2. Raw and final treated effluent BOD and SS data

BOD [mg/l]
SS [mg/l]

Raw Effluent
2006 March 2007
943
793

March 2007
3
4

Final discharge
April 2007
3
2

May 2007
1
3

The key to the success of the wastewater treatment plant in treating the raw effluent to the
final treated effluent quality level as illustrated above can be attributed to:
1
2
3
4

The effectiveness of the pre-treatment system in reducing the suspended and

colloidal solids to below 100 mg/l prior to the 2-stage biological system
The temperature of the wastewater is reduced to below 39 0C before the activated
sludge system
Adequate residual Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and sufficient nutrients supplied at the
activated sludge system
Low operating condition at the activated sludge system with an F/M ratio of 0.25

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to the tremendous support they have
received from Dato Hj. Masut A. Samah, the managing director of Pascorp Paper Industries,
throughout the entire phase of the project.

10