How does plating wastewater affect the environment?

Basic information about plating wastewater

Plating wastewater is a source of wastewater generated from industrial production processes using plating technology. The characteristics of plating wastewater are extremely diverse in composition, including substances such as surface detergents, heavy metals, and the pH of plating wastewater fluctuates strongly from acidic, neutral to basic.

Plating industry does not produce much wastewater, the concentration of organic substances is quite low, but the content of heavy metals is very high. They are considered toxic and destroy plankton, cause fish diseases and change the physical and chemical properties of the water, causing worrying effects on the environment. In addition, they also affect the water pipes, causing corrosion and erosion of sewer systems, affecting the quality of crops, livestock, agricultural cultivation, and soil degradation due to runoff and seepage, detergents, heavy metals... of plating wastewater. 

Plating wastewater contains very high metal content.

If plating wastewater is not treated properly, over time it will accumulate in the human body and cause serious diseases such as dermatitis, cancer, respiratory infections, etc.

What is the impact of plating wastewater on the environment?

As mentioned above, plating wastewater is a type of wastewater that contains many heavy metals, so if it is not treated thoroughly, it will cause serious harm to domestic organisms. The contact of organisms with heavy metals, even in small amounts, will be seriously affected and can cause mass death of plankton.

Wastewater seeps into the soil and groundwater, affecting the growth of vegetation. This indirectly also affects the food sources.

On the other hand, high heavy metal content will cause great corrosion to water pipes. Plating wastewater has the characteristic of containing a lot of heavy metals and chemicals that are harmful to the environment. In addition to chemical solutions that seep into the soil, chemicals in the air also affect the environment. If people accidentally inhale this chemical for a long time, it can easily cause conditions such as nausea, dizziness, headaches, etc. More severe cases can cause coma and loss of consciousness. Many studies have shown that long-term exposure to chemicals and toxic substances can lead to cancer and respiratory diseases. Untreated plating wastewater seeping into underground water sources will cause intestinal diseases in humans such as dysentery, cholera, etc. Some other dangerous epidemics are also possible. The human life expectancy can be reduced.

Plating wastewater negatively affects the biological wastewater treatment process because heavy metals such as Cr6+, Zn2+, Ni... acids and alkalis can kill microorganisms during the treatment process.

Characteristics of plating wastewater

Plating wastewater contains many heavy metals

A special feature of wastewater generated from the plating production process is that this type of wastewater contains a lot of heavy metals. It is these heavy metals that cause strong effects on the surrounding environment. The long-term impact will cause many consequences in the future. If it is not properly treated, discharged metal ions will not be able to decompose and will exist and accumulate in soil and water in nature.

Plating wastewater has some unique characteristics compared to other types of wastewaters.

The content of toxic substances in plating wastewater can harm plankton in the aquatic environment and is also a danger to humans. This is also called the process of forming toxic substances originating from plating wastewater which causes environmental pollution and leads many consequences also in the future.

Plating wastewater should be separated into 3 different streams:

- Concentrated waste solution from dipping tanks or soaking tanks.

- Wastewater from washing activities with an average levels of dirt such as grease, metal salts and soap...

- Wastewater which can be diluted. 

Plating wastewater has quite diverse pH levels

Plating wastewater has a variety of pH levels, specifically ranging from 2-3 (acidity) to about 10-11 (alkalinity). It contains high concentrations of inorganic salts and heavy metals. Common metals that exist in wastewater include: copper, zinc, chromium, etc. The appearance of these metals comes from the plating production process. The BOD and COD indexes of this type of wastewater are quite low and do not seem to belong to the components that need to be treated.