Empirical assessment of ammonia and urea concentrations in wastewater from a pharmaceutical plant: A case study

Abstract

In several ways, urea is one of the most prominent sources of fixed nitrogen due to its relative abundance in waste water treatment plants. In this study, the wastewater effluent from X-Chemical Industries was considered for hazard analysis in order to ascertain the water quality and impact at the outfall effluent of company X relative to environmental standards. The study period is for December, 2013 – February 2014. Based on the results, it was observed that at the company’s sluice gate, the desorber (primary treatment unit) did not perform optimally. Also, the variation of the parameters measured i.e. urea concentration, pH and ammonia concentrations exceeded the standards established by the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), i.e. against the specified standard of 100 ppm, higher concentrations include December 3, 9, 11, 12, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28 and 29 with corresponding urea concentrations of 1457, 1970.4, 122.7, 163.2, 150.3, 171.4, 148.76, 270.78, 178, 123, 101.33 and 250.43 ppm respectively, whereas that of ammonia is higher than 5 ppm on December 3, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 with corresponding concentrations of 8.4, 9.69, 8.13, 9.45, 12.5, 6.98, 22.95 and 9.95 respectively, whereas, it was lowest on other days. It was also observed that the treated waste water advancing the creek (jetty) close to the plant, will have environmental consequences on marine lives such as marine micro-flora as well as fishes.