ABSTRACT
The prevalence of enormous amounts of refractory pollutants in wastewater from the pulp and paper industry has resulted in severe threats to the ecosystem and human beings. Pulp and paper mills are the leading source of environmental pollutants in the water, air, and soil. This wastewater contains lignin and chlorinated organic compounds which exert carcinogenic and mutagenic effects and are thus toxic to aquatic organisms. Refractory pollutants inevitably enter our food chain, as farmers in developing countries irrigate their fields with this wastewater. Thus, adequate treatment is required to reduce these contaminants in the wastewater before it is finally discharged into the nearby water bodies. Unfortunately, the physico-chemical treatment methodologies or combination technologies adopted are highly energy intensive, costly, and produce secondary sludge. Biological treatment methods, on the other hand, are found to be efficient in minimizing the level of pollutants and toxic compounds from the wastewater. This chapter focuses on the use of highly efficient biological and advanced combinational methods for reducing the pollutants from pulp and paper mill effluents, compared to conventional treatment methods. It also provides a comprehensive outline regarding the contaminants and their characteristics, and the physico-chemical and biological treatment methodologies available to remove pollutants from the pulp and paper industry wastewater.
