Performance of perlite as an adsorbent on the physical treatment of cellulose industry wastewater

In recent years, the use of adsorbents for pre-treatment process has been the focus of attention. In this survey, the efficiency of pollutants removal and pre-treatment of cellulose industry’s wastewater with COD/BOD5 equal to 4.6 was investigated by perlite adsorbent. In this study, the performance of different amounts of perlite adsorbent was investigated in 6-24 h. The highest removal of indicators was observed after 24 h in the sample containing 12.5 gr/L perlite showing 48%, 76% and 47% reduction in COD, TSS and TDS respectively. According to the statistical analysis, the adsorbent amount and the adsorption time had a significant effect on the reduction of wastewater turbidity and COD, while TDS and EC of the wastewater was only affecting by the adsorption time which can be considered as a consequence of limited accessibility of perlite as well as adsorption and kinetic limitations. Finally, it can be concluded that perlite as a low-cost and environmentally friendly adsorbent can play an important role in cellulose industry effluent pretreatment by considerable decline in pollutants in the wastewater stream.