Pulp and paper mill wastewater management: from production to treatment and future prospects (a review)

Pulp and paper mill wastewater management in environment is threat for its safe disposal due to discharge of 270-300 m3 of polluted water per ton of paper production. The activated sludge process, sequential batch reactor (SBR), and membrane bioreactor (MBR) are most commonly adopted technology for treatment of discharged effluent. 2-methoxyphenol, hexadecanoic acid, trimethylsilylether, chlorophenols, pentadecanoic acid, β-sitosterol have been reported with carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting properties as major residual organic pollutants in discharged pulp and paper mill wastewater. Lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose may be converted into various value added products such as biochar, xylans, lactic acid, cellulose nano-crystals, etc. However there are still knowledge gap in their application. Hence it is pre-requisite for its next step upgradation of research activity so that the discharged effluent may be utilised for recycling in industry and agricultural practices after detoxification to meet out the sustainable development goals.