What is Industrial Waste? Its Types and effect

Major Industrial waste

Industrial waste refers to the solid, liquid and gaseous emissions, residual and unwanted wastes from an industrial operation. Industrial wastes materials that are by-products of industries like factories, chemical laboratories, nuclear plants and oil refineries and their subsidiary industries - meaning all industries that use oil and lubricants in their operations. These may come in the form of solid, liquid and gas. Solids include plastics, liquids are toxic poisons and gas would include smoke and other air pollutants.

Types of industrial wastes:

Generators of industrial solid waste are responsible for evaluating the waste and demonstrating that it is non-hazardous, either by documentation of the waste's characteristics and/or by laboratory testing.  Common types of industrial solid waste from businesses are:

Empty Chemical Containers, Asbestos Containing Material , Spilled Non-Hazardous Materials, Ash, Paint Residue, Filters and Dust, Sludge , Tires , Spent Carbon Filters ,Contaminated Soil Ink Sludge , Solvents & Clean-up Materials, Infectious Wastes, Chemically Treated Wood, Machining Wastes, Electrical Component Wastes, Oil Contaminated Waste, Non-Recyclable Glass, Food Waste, Industrial Non-Recyclable Plastics, Street Related Wastes, Animal Remains & Carcasses, Non-Combustible Inert Wastes, Decontaminated Infectious Wastes , Epoxy, Fiberglass, Urethane & Polyurethane Resins.

Inorganic waste: Inorganic waste comes from many industrial facilities, domestic facilities, and nonpoint sources. Any chemical used in an industrial facility, including floor cleaners, scrubbers, acids, etc. are sources of inorganic wastes that can enter receiving streams. Soil, sand, and grit that is removed from the floor of a facility by a floor scrubber and washed down the drain are another source of inorganic waste from industrial facilities.

Major industries in Pakistan: In present there are number of industries which are working and produces different waste material and is contaminating our environment. Some examples are

Textile Industry, Vegetable Ghee and Cooking Oil Industry, Sugar Industry, Fertilizer Industry, Cement Industry, Chemical Industry, Jute Industry and Cigarette Industry.

Example of industry in reference to its waste: Here is example of industry which generate waste material during manufacturing of its product.

Fertilizer Industry:

There are 10 fertilizer units (6 in the public sector and 4 in the private sector) in the country, having an installed capacity of 42, 98,000 N. Tones (16, 74,000 N. Tones in the public sector and 26, 24,000 N. Tones is the private sector). Total production of fertilizers in 2001-02 was 5012 thousand tones. The low production was caused, by operational difficulties, decline in working hours and power failure/load shedding.

What is fertilizer???

Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin (other than liming materials) that is added to soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants.

Fertilizers typically provide, in varying proportions:

Six macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur

Eight micronutrients: boron (B), chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, zinc and nickel.

Inorganic commercial fertilizer: Fertilizers are broadly divided into organic fertilizers (composed of organic plant or animal matter), or inorganic or commercial fertilizers. Plants can only absorb their required nutrients if they are present in easily dissolved chemical compounds. Both organic and inorganic fertilizers provide the same needed chemical compounds. Organic fertilizers provided other macro and micro plant nutrients and are released as the organic matter decays—this may take months or years. Organic fertilizers nearly always have much lower concentrations of plant nutrients and have the usual problems of economical collection, treatment, transportation and distribution.

Inorganic fertilizers nearly always are readily dissolved and unless neither added have few other macro and micro plant nutrients nor added any 'bulk' to the soil. Nearly all nitrogen that plants use is in the form of NH3 or NO3 compounds. The usable phosphorus compounds are usually in the form of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and the potassium (K) is typically in the form of potassium chloride (KCl). In organic fertilizers nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds are released from the complex organic compounds as the animal or plant matter decays. In commercial fertilizers the same required compounds are available in easily dissolved compounds that require no decay—they can be used almost immediately after water is applied. Inorganic fertilizers are usually much more concentrated with up to 64% (18-46-0) of their weight being a given plant nutrient, compared to organic fertilizers that only provide 0.4% or less of their weight as a given plant nutrient.

Problems and effect of phosphorus and inorganic fertilizers:

Atmospheric pollutants emitted by the fertilizer industry can include gaseous ammonia (NH3) and ammonium salt aerosols, nitric and nitrous oxides (NO and N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) fluorine – as silicon fluoride (SiF4 ) and hydrogen fluoride (HF) – sulphur oxides (SOx), fertilizer dust and acid mists.Naturally occurring radiation (from phosphogypsum) may also be present. Waste waters from the industry can include compounds of nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, sodium, silica, sulphur, fluorine as well as sludge’s and polluted wash water.Solid wastes or by-products, which may or may not be reprocessed, can include phosphogypsum, pyrite ashes, calcium carbonate, and soluble salts from potash refining, sand and, not least, the plastic bags used to transport the fertilizer. Several chemical residues are generated from the catalysts and other associated operations, and they require special management procedures. In addition, the fertilizer product itself can carry impurities to the soil, mostly in negligible amounts.

Building a fertilizer production facility is a major investment that is intended to last for decades. New plants are able to incorporate innovative technologies with better environmental performances. Older plants can only install technologies when they are revamped. It is generally economical to conduct these costly refitting only during a capacity upgrade or efficiency improvement. Because efficiency and environmental performance usually go hand-in-hand, economics has contributed to the industry’s improving environmental performance. In the regions that have undergone economic restructuring, it is generally the least efficient plants that have been permanently closed.

Finding new uses for co-products that are currently considered to be “wastes” is another way to reduce the industry’s environmental footprint. Phosphogypsum, which is produced in large quantities by the phosphate sector, is a case in point

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Effect on air by fertilizers industries : Air quality can be affected by emissions of dust; exhaust particulates and exhaust gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulphur oxides (SOx); volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from fuelling and workshop activities; and methane released from factory.

Atmospheric pollutants emitted by the fertilizer industry can include gaseous ammonia (NH3) and ammonium salt aerosols, nitric and nitrous oxides (NO and N2O), fluorine – as silicon fluoride (SiF4) and hydrogen fluoride (HF) – sulphur oxides (SOx ), fertilizer dust and acid mists. Naturally occurring radiation (from phosphogypsum) may also be present. Various abatement technologies exist and are evolving constantly. For example, a recent technological breakthrough makes it possible to destroy virtually all of the N2O from nitric acid production.