Catalytic Treatment of Opium Alkaloid Wastewater via Hydrothermal Gasification

The wastewater from an opium processing plant should meet the standards as specified in the 'Water Pollution Control Regulation (WPCR), 2004' before being discharged safely into the receiving medium. Treatment of opium alkaloid wastewater is not sufficient using the existing combined methods of aerobic/anaerobic and chemical treatment. Hydrothermal gasification (HTG) is proposed as an alternative treatment in this study. the other aim of this study is to show the ability to manufacture CH4 and H-2 as renewable energy sources and to determine to what extent the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) is. Studies were carried out in batch autoclave reactor systems without catalyst, with original red mud (RM), activated RM, and nickel-impregnated (10, 20, and 30%) forms. Reduction with NaBH4 was done to the nickel-impregnated forms of RM to increase the catalytic activity. Yields of CH4 and H-2 increased from 16.8 to 28.6 mol CH4/kg C in wastewater and from 20.3 to 33.3 mol H-2/kgC in wastewater with 20% impregnated nickel and reduced red mud as the highest at 500 degrees C. the COD of the wastewater was lowered by 81-85% approximately while the TOC content decreased by 85-90%.