Treatment of Wastewater from Beverage/Soft Drink Industry by Microwave Photolytic Process

The present study explored the treatment of soft drink (beverage) industry wastewater (SDIW) in microwave alone system and in microwave photolytic system. A rapid degradation and mineralization of the wastewater were observed within one hour of treatment time. The mineralization efficiency in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was 78.7%, 81.0%, and 88.6%, respectively, in the system with MW and MW photolysis with one EDL and two EDL at a MW output power of 400 W. Increase in MW power from 400 W to 600 W indicated 4%, 15.5%, and 8.9% increase in the mineralization efficiency of SDIW with the corresponding value of 82%, 95.9%, and 97.3%, respectively, in the three systems. The DO in various systems showed 1.2 to 1.4 mg/L variation during the treatment process. The MW with EDL systems showed higher reduction in DO than that of MW systems, owing to the higher rate of generation of powerful hydroxyl radical, which could result in the rapid oxidation of the organics SDIW in MW photolytic systems compared to MW alone system. On the other hand, the pH showed only a minute variation (<0.5) in all the systems investigated.