Particle Size Measurement in Waste Water Influent and Effluent Using Particle Size Analyzer and Quantitative Image Analysis Technique

Wastewater originated from domestic or industry use need to be treated before discharge it to the environment. Particle size is one of the parameter that determine efficient operation of wastewater treatment plant. The present work conducts a comparative study of non-imaging and imaging based particle size analysis tools to analyze the limitations and advantages of using such equipment. The study utilizes particle size analyzer (PSA) as non-imaging tool and light microscope as imaging tool to determine particle sizes in various waste water samples. For this analysis domestic wastewater influent and effluent are analyzed with both techniques. In addition, palm oil mill effluent (POME) has also been analyzed after Fenton process to compare the particle size using these tools. PSA shows most of the particles in the influent and effluent are in the size range of 100 to 700 μm, while microscopy shows additional information of aggregates structure in POME sample showing promising possibility of identifying complex structure of aggregates present in the sample.