1.

Introduction
Primary production of beverages requires plentiful amounts of water. More
than two thirds of all freshwater abstraction world-wide (and up to 90% in
some countries) goes towards food production. Already freshwater
resources are being depleted and by 2025, it is estimated that 35 % of
the worlds population will live in countries affected by water stress or
scarcity. In carbonated soft drinks industries, water serves as the major
element (approx. 80%). In such a manufacturing process, about one-third
of the water is used for cooling, floor scouring and washing. Bottlewashing uses also a lot of water . Pollution sources are mainly related to
raw substances and off-specification products. Analysis has also shown
that 70 % of the total wastewater disposal costs are caused by the
relatively small amount of cleaning-in-place (CIP) rinsing water stream
that comes from the hot water cleaning processes accomplished after
every product change. Wastewater generally include wasted soft drinks
and syrup, water from the washing of bottles and cans, containing
detergents and caustics, and lubricants used in the machinery.
1.1 Quality of water
For the food and drink industry, a proportion of the water used often
becomes part of the product. Approximately 3 to 4 litres of fresh water is
required to produce 1 litre of soft drink. Most of the industries do not reuse
the waste water and consuming bulk of fresh water for each cycle.
However, even in the soft drinks industries, where water is a major
component of the product, only 2030 % of the total water consumed
leaves in the product, with the rest being accounted for in atmospheric
emissions or effluent. The effluents from the food and drink industry often
have high Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), thus contributing to the
degeneration of local water bodies.
Typically, 100g of fructose will result in 70 g of BOD with the
discharge from a plant being anywhere from 5000 to 20000 mg l-1 of BOD
[7]. About 62 % of the total organic matter is soluble and therefore cannot
be removed by mechanical or physical means. The chemical oxygen
(COD) can range from 500 mg l-1 to over 4000 mg l-1.
1.2 Necessity of Treatment
The consumption rate of carbonated soft drinks is very high and its
production generates large quantity of wastewater [1]. Treatment
technologies for soft drink wastewater resulting from the manufacturing
process must be considered because the industry uses more than 12
billion gallons of water during production every year [2]. Wastewaters
from soft drink industries have a moderate concentration of pollutants due

to the fact that they are mainly composed of washing waters from
production lines which is derived from the ingredients used in the final
production. These include wasted soft drinks and syrup, water from the
washing of bottles and cans, containing detergents and caustics, and
lubricants used in the machinery. As a result, soft drink wastewater (SDW)
contains organic and inorganic substances and a high pH value. These
pollutants include total suspended solids, 5-day biochemical oxygen
demand, chemical oxygen demand, nitrates, phosphates, sodium and
potassium. For this reason, treatment is required before the wastewater is
discharged to either a receiving environment or the sewer.
1.3 Treatment processes adapted so far
A
complete
biological
treatment
includes
optional
screening,
neutralization/equalization, anaerobic and aerobic treatment or aerobic
treatment, sludge separation (e.g., sedimentation or dissolved air
flotation), and sludge disposal. Chemical and physical treatment
processes (e.g., coagulation and sedimentation/flotation) are occasionally
used to reduce the organic content before the wastewater enters the
biological treatment process. Since the wastewater has high sugar
content, it can promote the growth of filamentous bacteria with lower
density. Thus, dissolved air flotation may be used instead of the more
commonly used sedimentation.

1.4 Motivation and Objective for the present work

Adsorption has been defined as the enrichment of one or more components in an
interfacial layer. It involves the interphase accumulation or concentration of
substances at a surface or interface. The material being concentrated or
adsorbed is the adsorbate, while the adsorbing phase is the adsorbent. It is one
of the oldest and most important processes for removing undesirable chemicals
from air or water.
Granular activated carbon (GAC) is currently the standard adsorbent in chemical
industries against several gases and vapours because of its efficiency, low cost
and available technology. Granular Activated carbon fibre (GAC) is considered as
good alternative adsorbents for developing thinner, light-weight and efficient
respirators because of their larger surface area, larger adsorption capacities,
lighter weight and fabric form. To achieve such application, adsorption
characteristics of different types of commercially available activated carbon
fibres (ACFs) for specific chemicals must be understood in advance.
GAC being the major component of the project is used as an adsorbent material
to treat the waste water coming out of the soft drink industries. After the
treatment, a comparison should be made for the treated water by this method
and the methods adapted so far to know its efficiency compared to other
methods.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The beverage industry wastewater originates from different individual
processes such as bottle washing, product filling, heating or cooling
and cleaning-in-place (CIP) systems, beverage manufacturing, and
sanitising floors, including work cells, cleaning of zones and piping
networks.
2.1 Softdrink Industry Wastewater Background
The wastewater from bottle washing constitutes almost 50% of the total
wastewater, which is generated by the softdrink industry (Hsine et al.,
2010; Ramirez et al., 2004; Miyaki et al., 2000). According to Hsine et
al. (2010); Guven (2001) and Ghosh & Henry (1981), wastewater
from the softdrink industry is highly biodegradable and constitutes various
blends of chemicals, including fructose, glutose, sucrose, lactose,
artificial sweetener, fruit juice concentrates, flavouring agents,
dissolved carbon dioxide/carbonic acid, bicarbonates, colouring agents
(caramel and synthetic dye-stuff), preservatives (phosphoric acid and
tartaric acid) and mineral salts that are used during production.
The BOD:COD ratio of wastewater from washing equipment during
the manufacturing of softdrinks is generally 0.05:1 (Hsine et al., 2010).
Waste sugar is the main contributor to high COD values of 25 to 145 000
mg/L, BOD of 130 to 350 mg/L, TSS of 26 to 38 000 mg/L, TDS of 750 to 1
200 mg/L, TN of 20 to 1 180 mg/L, and TP of 130 to 250 mg/L. The pH
could be acidic or alkaline, ranging between 3.35 and 11 (Haroon et al.,
2013; Hsine et al., 2010; Matoi et al., 2009; Oktay et al., 2007;
Guven, 2001). Wastewater from the production of softdrinks is classified
as high strength waste, since the BOD and SS concentrations are high
and, therefore; direct discharge into municipal sewers without
treatment causes environmental pollution (Matoi et al., 2009;
Manyele, et al., 2008; Cheremisinoff, 2001).

1.4 Wastewater Treatment Methods

Wastewater
treatment
methods
are
essential
for
community
development to remove pollutants and to recover water for reuse
(Libralato, 2013). Some of the adapted softdrink wastewater treatment
methods are namely: 1) preliminary, which is selected for the removal
of large materials and coarse solids regularly found in the
wastewater; 2) primary, which is designed for the removal of
inorganic and organic floating material and the physical processes of
sedimentation;
3)
secondary,
where
biological
processes
are
employed to remove the remaining organic material and colloids
(activated sludge, tickling filter and secondary settling zone lagoons,
ponds, expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB), rotating biological
contactor (RBC), upflow anaerobic filter (UAF), and upflow anaerobic
sludge bed (UASB); and 4) tertiary or advanced to further treat
secondary
wastewater
to
eliminate
or decrease
remaining
contamination by utilizing different methods such as biological and
chemical processes, membrane filtration (MF), ion exchange (IE) and
reverse osmosis (RO)(Feroz et al., 2012; Bitton, 2011; Karia & Christian,
2006; Sonune & Ghate, 2004).
Anaerobic Digestion or treatment is referred to as a fermentation process
during, which organic material is degraded and biogas is produced
through a mixture of microbial community in the absence of oxygen. AD
is characterized by biological conversion of organic compounds (COD) into
biogas, primarily methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) with odour
traces of hydrogen sulphide (H2S).

2.Materials and Methods

Sample preparation
Synthetic wastewater that mimicked the composition of wastewater
discharged from soft drink-processing factory was prepared with the
following configuration:
1,100 mg L1 of polyethylene glycol 200 (PEG200)
1,500 mgL1 of Corn Sweet High Fructose 55
30 mg L1 of acetone; 30 mg L1 of ethanol
10 mg L1 of silicone grease
16 mg L1 of K2HPO4
19mgL1 of FeSO4.7H2O; 366 mg L1 of NaHCO3
2mgL1 of NaF; 2.5 mg L1 of NaOCl
28 mg L1 of NH4HCO3.
The sample was stirred with a magnetic stirrer for 12 hours and later
refrigerated at 4.C to prevent the microbial action.
Sample Characterisation
The sample was characterised for the mentioned parameters: pH, Total
Solids (TS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Suspended Solids (TSS),
Alkalinity, BOD, TN and TP. All the above mentioned tests were performed
with the standard guidelines of the particular experiments.

Parameter

Range

pH

3.5 11

TDS

750-1200 mg/L

TSS

26 90 mg/L

Alkalinity

1000-3500 mg/L

BOD

0.6 4.5 g/L

TN

150-300 mg/L

TP

20-40 mg/L

Microwave Theory and Mechanism

MW is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum occurring in the frequency
range of 300 MHz to 300 GHz. It has been used for heating since 1937;
however, the first commercial MW oven operating at 2.45 GHz was
introduced in 1947[95]. Thereafter, MW was developed considerably for
various heating applications but the use of MW for chemical
transformations improved tremendously after Material Type Conductor
Insulator Lossy.The interaction of MW with different materials. The
application of MW oven in laboratory in 1975[71]. In recent years, MW has
been used widely in the field of environmental engineering. MW can
provide rapid heating of materials depending on the dissipation factor of
the material (loss tangent). Dissipation factor is the ratio of relative loss
factor () to the dielectric constant () of a material. Dielectric constant is
a relative measure of the MW energy density in the material and the
relative loss factor accounts for the internal loss mechanisms, i.e. the
amount of MW energy that is lost in the material as heat. Therefore, a
lossy material with a high is easily heated by MW energy.

Microwave application in Wastewater Treatment

The WW treatment is a process of removing contaminants and organic
material from WW using various techniques, systems and methods.
Several physical, chemical and biological methods have been used for the
treatment of WW. The quality of a good WWtreatment system is the higher
pollutant degradation/mineralization efficiency with cost-effectiveness and

ease of operation. The rapid and effective heating properties of MW lead

to its application in WW treatment. MW has been a powerful tool in the
degradation of various organic compounds including pesticides, ammonia
nitrogen and organic dyes. The energy of one mole of photon from MW (E)
at a frequency range of 1100 GHz is equal to 0.440 J. However, the
energy of MW is insufficient to disrupt the chemical bonds of many organic
compounds[104]. Therefore, MW has been combined with adsorbents,
catalysts and AOPs for increasing the treatment efficiency of various
pollutants and also to shorten the reaction time. In the past, MW has been
combined with wide variety of AOPs such as UV, Fenton, UV/Fenton,
UV/H2O2, UV/TiO2, UV/Bi2WO6and O3. This review is focused to address
the following most commonly preferred MW-assisted systems for WW
treatment: (1) MW alone, (2) MW with oxidants, (3) MW with catalysts, i.e.
MW enhanced catalytic degradation (MECD), (4) MW with Fenton process,
(5) MW with direct photolysis (MWDP) and (6) MW with photocatalysis
(MWPC). In general perspective, domestic WW treatment also includes
sludge management/treatment. However, some industrial/process WWs
produce negligible amount of sludge and the major emphasize of MW is
for WW treatment.

Microwave with Photo-catalysis (MWPC)

MW-assisted photocatalysis has been developed to overcome the
drawbacks of UV/Fenton, UV/H2O2, i.e. formation of secondary pollutants
with the use of ferrous or ferric salts and use of costly oxidants,
respectively. The main catalysts used in MWPC are TiO2 (in the forms of
grain, nanoporous and nanotube), F-Si-comodified TiO2, TiO2 supported
on AC and ferroelectric bismuth tungstate (Bi2WO6). The MW-assisted
photocatalysis system can be successfully operated by facilitating the
combination of the three variables: (i) the type and variation of
semiconductor photocatalyst (slurry vs. thin film), (ii) external or internal
lamp (classical UV lamp vs. EDL, and (iii) the frequency of MW (2.45 GHz)
[81].
Recent studies have demonstrated an outstanding improvement of the
degradative efficiency by the coupling of MW with EDL and catalysts
(Table 4). This improvement could be attributed to the generation of more

OH and the polarization effect of highly defected TiO2 [76]. Horikoshi et

al. [91] proved that about 20% more radicals are generated in MWassisted photocatalysis compared to photocatalysis alone. Under MW, the

surface of TiO2 becomes more hydrophobic, and thereby, increases the

contact of pollutant and the catalyst surface. Subsequently, the additional
defect site generated on the TiO2surface would increase the transition
probability of e/h+ pair and decrease their recombination on the
TiO2surface [5].
A similar reason can be ascribed to the improved photocatalytic efficiency
of MW-EDL systems with catalysts like Bi2WO6[85].In addition, dyes can
be photodegraded concurrently by both catalytic process and selfphotosensitization[90]. MWPC was successfully applied for the destruction
of various pollutants such as dyes (AO7 and reactive brilliant red X-3B),
herbicides (2,4-D) and endocrine disruptors (bisphenol-A). MWPC is
suitable even under inferior photodecomposition conditions such as small
quantities of TiO2, low concentration of oxygen and low light irradiation
(Table 4). As a whole, coupling MW with photocatalysis can resolve various
problems encountered in photocatalytic process[90].

Comparison between MWDP and MWPC

It is clearly evident that the energy of MW was insufficient to disrupt the
chemical bonds of common organic molecules. The diminutive removal
efficiency of phenolic compounds under MW could be attributed to the
heating effect [86]. Whereas, the degradation of phenolic compounds
under MWDP could be due to the combined result of thermal effect of MW
and the energy of UVvis light from EDLs. As seen inFig. 5, the polarization
effect of highly defected catalyst provided the highest degradation
efficiency of various target compounds in MWPC[8284]. The composite
TiO2/AC catalyst largely reserves the excellent adsorption capacity, which
ensures an integrative process at the same time, i.e. pollutant adsorption,
MW-absorption and photocatalytic reaction. In addition, the strong MW-

and lightabsorbing capacity of TiO2/AC along with rapid activation of the

catalyst by MW serves as the effective catalytic system for organic
pollutant degradation[86].

Power consumption
methods
Process

MW alone
MW
catalyst

Polluta
nt
PCP

with

under

various

MW-assisted

treatment

Initial
Conc
(mg/L)
40

Remov
ed
(mg)
0.1

MW
Power
(W)
900

Energy
Consumption(KWh
/kg)
2542.4

1500

2004

400

0.8

MW with UV

40

1.6

900

182.9

MW with UV
and Fe-Si-TiO2

40

2.0

900

151.5

30

0.4

750

3921.6

100

6.0

300

0.8

30

13.5

750

111.1

200

4.0

100

0.8

200

67.5

1000

2.2

MW alone
MW
with
catalyst
MW with UV
and TiO2
MW
with
catalyst
MW with UV
and H2O2

4-CP

Phenol

Fabrication of MW Reactor
A modified domestic microwave oven (2450 MHz) is generally used for the
aqueous phase MW-assisted degradation experiments. The MWreactors
are usually made-up of glass/Pyrex as vessel or column type reactor,
which is operated either in batch or continuous-flow mode. The schematic
representation of the above mentioned MW reactors is shown.

Schematic Diagram of MWPC Experimental Setup

A batch mode reactor is equipped with infrared pyrometer, MW power and
temperature controllers. The vessel reactor operating with batch mode
consists of magnetic stirrer for mixing the reactor contents. On the other
hand, a perforated quartz plate is provided with the glass column reactor
operating in batch mode to sustain catalyst. In the continuous flow mode
reactors, the glass column reactor is connected to metering pump and
pressure gauge at the inlet, and at the effluent end, the reactor is
connected to a heat exchanger and pressure regulating valve. The MW
reactor is generally operated within the emission limits set for the MW
ovens, i.e. less than 5 mW/cm2, measured at a distance 5 cm away from
the oven. During MW-assisted studies, the required amount of
oxidants/catalysts is added in to the reactor under constant stirring (in
batch mode). On the other hand, several studies were conducted with
fixed bed column reactors using catalysts such as zero valent iron,
different forms of AC and carbon supported metal catalyst. While using
AC, the catalyst is saturated by the pollutant prior to MW assisted
degradation so as to eliminate the adsorption effect of AC on pollutant
degradation. The CWAO in MW reactor is achieved by incorporating the
mixing of WW and air before the inlet in a continuous mode reactor. MW
photochemistry is done with a batch mode reactor, with EDL placed in the
reaction vessel.