CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MAIN SLUDGE OF CONCENTRATED LATEX INDUSTRY

摘要

Concentrated latex factories are an important part of the rubber industry in Southern Thailand. Main solid waste problem of the concentrated latex production is a sludge that sometimes called centrifuged residues. There are 3 point sources of this sludge generation. Those are at the field latex received tanks, the centrifuge machines as well as at the latex skimming tanks. Refer to sludge management, the factory mainly disposed it by burning and open dumping. Beside this, some factories apply this sludge as fertilizers in oil palm plantation. If the sludge can be characterized and known well their contained components, the potential usage and the suitable utilization of this sludge can be drawn and promoted for the practical and suitable implementation. In this report, the characterization of the sludge collected from such three sources in the concentrated latex industry in the South of Thailand was illustrated. In addition, leaching performances of the sludge with water and skim rubber wastewater from concentrated latex were investigated. The characteristics results of investigated sludge implied to be quite similar although the sludge generated from the difference sources. This sludge contained several attractive nutrients, particularly N, P and K. However, it was alkaline and also contained of several heavy metals oxides. The sludge could be dissolved in skim rubber wastewater that was acidic pH. This reflected that the sludge might be used or treated within the wastewater treatment process of concentrated latex factory.