ABSTRACT
The pulp and paper mills are among the most important industries in the world, but also some of the biggest polluting agents, discharging a variety of pollutants such as gaseous, liquid and solid wastes into the environment. The pollution of water bodies is of major global concern, because these industries generate large volumes of wastewater, viz. about 80 m3 of wastewater for each ton of pulp produced (Oguz and Keskinler 2008). More than 250 chemicals produced at different stages of paper production have been identified in the effluents (Thompson et al. 2001). According to research reports, samples with biodegradability index (BOD5/COD) smaller than 0.3 are not appropriate for biological degradation (Helble et
al. 1999), as for complete biodegradation the effluent must present an index of at least 0.40 (Chamarro et al. 2001).
