Influence of bleaching technologies on the aerobic biodegradability of effluents from Eucalyptus kraft pulps factories

Aerobic biodegradability of effluents front different Eucalyptus kraft pulp bleaching processes was studied. Bleaching effluents were obtained from i) Chlorine Bleaching (CB) processes, with partial substitution of chlorine by chlorine dioxide and ii) Total Chlorine Free (TCF) processes. The overall biodegradability, in terms of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) was higher for TCF effluents (96-98%) than for CB ones (82-93%). Taking into account the higher organic load of CB effluents, this fact implied a much higher residual COD for them (100-180 mg/L) than for TCF effluents (10-30 mg/L). Furthermore, a refractory fraction of molecular weight higher than 43,000 Da was found in CB effluent, which implied the necessity of a further specific treatment. The toxicity was completely removed after the biological treatment.