Coke wastewater treatment methods: Mini review

Coke wastewater production and its treatment is an alarming issue worldwide. Coke oven produces coke wastewater with a highly loaded and contaminated stream. Coke wastewater with high BOD (biochemical oxygen demand), COD (chemical oxygen demand), and nutrients impart serious threat if disposed of without treatment. It also contains phenol, ammonia, cyanide, thiocyanate & polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Because of composition and specificity of coke oven pollutants, appropriate selection of treatment method is a crucial step. The present literature review found that efficient treatment of coke wastewater can be done either by chemical or biological method. The chemical method is mostly performed by coagulation followed by sedimentation or flocculation, while biological method is preferably activated sludge process or nitrification/denitrification processes. An extensive review study on possible treatment methodologies of coke wastewater has been performed. This study focuses on comparison of performance of various treatment methods for coke wastewater.