Stealing a Design for a Treatment Plant

In India, one need's to be a thief, an unscrupulous businessman, a politician, a bribe giver and a bribe taker to achieve success and amass wealth beyond one's true intrinsic worth.  Here is one such story of a Corporate group who have risen to fame and fortune by just such criminal acts, which continues to this day in several other fields ranging from telecommunications to petrochemicals.

46. STEALING A DESIGN FOR A TREAMENT PLANT

Stealing is not an uncommon occupation for many in India : on the streets, the pick pockets steal wallets  ; from the hallowed halls of legislatures, corrupt politicians steal and grab land while watching porn on the side for self edification ; from the ivory towers of academia, academic fraudsters steal reports and research papers from technical journals, and from plush air conditioned offices, greedy businessmen and industrialists steal intellectual property, indulge in bribery, price fixing, share price manipulations among other vile anti national activities.  This is a story of one such common thief of the last variety, who unfortunately, but appropriately enough in India has become a leading Business house.  In any other civilized country with a decent judicial system, these worthies would be behind bars for life.

In the years 1981-82, I was approaching the end of my stint as an environmental engineer working in Hindustan Dorr-Oliver. One of the new kids on the block and an upcoming textiles giant had set up a modern manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Ahmedabad : now of course, the empire is split and the two factions are into other major business ventures and fraudulent activities of various shades.

This textile unit wanted to put up a showcase treatment plant for their process effluents, in keeping with their vaunted high tech and high profile façade : I was the unwitting lamb taken to slaughter by crooks in gentlemen’s guise.

It started off in a fairly routine manner : I developed an outline design of the treatment plant for the facility.  By and by, more details and sophistication were added to the design, and also a little bit of preliminary engineering.  At their beck and call, I would catch the night train to Ahmedabad, reach early in the morning, stay in a hotel on Ashram Road ( I forget the name of the hotel), breakfast on onion uthappam at the Woodlands restaurant nearby and catch the company staff vehicle from in front of the sanitaryware store on Ashram Road.

Still a greenhorn and wet behind the ears, I fell for all the blandishments these crooks held out to me : they assured me the project had been decided in our favour, and it was just a matter of time and some more fine tuning.  And as a token of their good faith, once in a while, they would even take me to their Top Dog, who happened to be the brother of the founding father of the empire.

On one occasion, deeply etched in my memory, on an urgent call from these unreliable and uncouth louts, I air dashed to Ahmedabad by the morning flight from Bombay.  Suitable clarifications given, the discussion wound up before noon of that day.   For want of something better to do, on a whim I called up Indian Airlines to reconfirm my return flight later in the evening.  The kindly soul at the other end informed me that there was a chartered flight taking off to Bombay within the next hour, and I could make it on the flight, if I hurried to the airport.  Thus it was that I found myself amidst a group of enthusiastic and highly vocal devotees of the Swaminarayan sect who had chartered the flight   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaminarayan : I joined my new found friends in lusty singing of Bhajans all the way back on that short flight to Bombay.

The culture of an organization I suppose trickles down from the top, and seeps into the very being of the managers and other flunkeys, if they are to keep their jobs in this kind of an organization.  The same culture of devious behaviour, chicanery and skulduggery evidently cannot be removed from the genes of succeeding generations, as I have observed in later years, being a keen and critical observer of this industrial group.

This treatment plant was also one of the first where I put in a novel correction unit to control the Sodium percentage in the wastewater to less than 60 % as prescribed in the Environment Protection Rules :  Treated water would percolate through a filter bed comprising Gypsum among other support media.  This was also one of my first designs of a treatment plant in modular fashion to accommodate the major expansion plans of this overambitious group : In later years this group would grow to be one of the largest industrial conglomerates in India, by fair means or foul.

For the final round of discussions and closing the deal, I was asked to come to meet the Big Brother himself with all final drawings, specifications, details - the works.  As I ceremoniously handed over the designs to the dark complexioned fraudster, I could not help but think that his smile was more a smirk : the same inane, self satisfied smile - smirk I find in his offspring these days.

A month later, I was given the bad news that the project had been handed over to one of our competitors : their claim to fame and fortune ? This competitor also happened to be a supplier of textile machinery to the group.  And they had in their hands the perfect designs for the treatment plant, authored by an expert in the field by name Dr. A S Kodavasal.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                December 03, 2011

P.S :  Since that day, I have taken a vow not to touch any of this Group’s companies with a barge pole.  I only hit back at them in my own small way by selectively purchasing their “Buy one get one free” deals in their freshly opened shops.

Tapioca Starch Wastewater Treatment

Salem in Tamilnadu is the land of tapioca, starch and sago.  Over several visits to these factories about 15 years ago, a simple and cost effective Treatment scheme was developed for treating these highly polluting wastewaters from starch production operations.  However, recent reports suggest that many factories have not yet installed proper waste treatment facilities. Not that the farmers lack the funds for putting up these plants.  The principal reason is official apathy and laissez faire attitude that also helps bring in big bucks for turning a blind eye to environmental pollution, so common in our country.

50. STARCH, TAPIOCA SAGO  WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Around Fifteen years ago, I made a number of trips to the sleepy little town of Salem in central Tamilnadu.  I was invited by SAGOSERVE, a Cooperative undertaking of the Salem District Starch and Sago Producers to study their production process and recommend a suitable treatment scheme for the wastewaters generated in the process.  It was a pleasant enough drive of  5 hours to Salem from Bangalore via Hosur, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and the Thoppur Ghats, at a time before the toll Expressway was even contemplated.

http://www.sagoserve.com/

I am ashamed to confess, up until that time, I had imagined that Sabudana (Jawwarisi in Tamil) was a grain crop akin to rice or wheat, grown in vast green fields of the stuff, rippling and swaying  in the breeze.

Sabudana or Sago pearls are manufactured products from starch milled out of Tapioca tubers grown extensively in and around Salem.  Tapioca is called by different names in different parts of the world : native to the Amazonian jungles of South America, tapioca’s high food and nutritive value found it quickly proliferating all over the world, thanks to the colonizing powers such as Portugal, France etc.  Colonialism of previous centuries did indeed have many positives to its credit.  Called Yuca ( not Yucca) in its native lands,  Manioc in France and French speaking Africa,  Cassava in English speaking colonies, the root tubers are rich in starch, Calcium, Phosphorus and Vitamin C with little fat or proteins.

Just a few miles outside of Salem town, I visited one of the larger and more progressive tapioca farmers and starch manufacturer.  The rich bounty that this magic crop had brought to this humble farmer was plain to see.  In the midst of a vast plantation of tapioca now stood a modern Bungalow, displacing the thatched hut of not many years ago : A gleaming Mercedes Benz stood in the portico earlier occupied by the bullock cart : and a little distance away the Starch and Sago factory was humming with activity,  women and child labourers busily peeling the freshly harvested tubers and cutting them into pieces 3 to 4 inches long to be fed into the hungry jaws of the milling machine.  A modern day replica of the Tea Estates from a century ago : only the charm of the hills, the panache of the Planters and their style was missing in the hot plains of Salem.  I hasten to add this is in no way meant to be derogatory of these tapioca farmers.  True sons of the soil, they were gracious hosts in their own way, entirely without artifice and humbug: a first generation of farmers reaping the rich rewards now for the blood, toil, tears and sweat of their forefathers who tilled these same parched lands for a subsistence living.

The cut tapioca tubers are crushed and milled along with added water in a roller crushing machine ( like the ones used for crushing sugarcane, but only much larger ) to produce what the locals call the “milk” of tapioca. Milk white in colour, the milk or the slurry is allowed to settle in large shallow basins, when the solid starch particles settle out, and the supernatant water is drained off.  The solid starch is then heated lightly to retain the right amount of moisture, after which it is fed into a vibratory screen like contraption, where the solids form themselves into tiny round pearls, rolling, tumbling and dancing off the machine as Sabudana.

It is critical to process the tubers within a day of harvest : otherwise, enzymatic action under mildly acidic conditions converts and reduces the starch ( a polysaccharide) to its several hydrolysis products such as maltose, dextrose, fructose and glucose.  Starch is basically insoluble in cold water, but not so the lower saccharides.

The wastewater from the starch and sago making operations is mainly the supernatant drawn off form the settling basins.  Some of the salient features of this industry in Salem and the wastewater characteristics are  :

Number of Sago units                             : 700 to 800 ( in the year 1995 -96)

Processing Capacity of plant                   : 50 to 150 MT per day

Wastewater generated                            : 200 to 600 cum/d

Biochemical Oxygen Demand ( BOD)       : 4000 mg/L ( easily biodegradeable organic matter)

Chemical Oxygen Demand ( COD )         : 5500 mg/L

pH                                                                     : 5.0 to 5.5

At the time of my visit there was not a single treatment plant in the entire industry : however, pressure was building up for setting up treatment plants both from the Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board as well as the Green bench of the Madras High Court.

Some of the Design considerations and criteria I had set for myself in this environment were as follows:

-          Rural setting of the starch and sago units

-          Seasonal nature of operations ( Peak/ Lean)

-          The Farmers predisposition towards this unexpected expenditure

-          Historical argument of “ No harm done to the soil or groundwater”

-          No previous prototype or precedent of treatment plant

-          Low level of operator skills

-          Maximise local materials in construction of treatment plant

-          Minimise costs

-          By products utilization for beneficial use

The final design presented to SAGOSERVE for a 200 / 100 KLD ( Peak/ Lean season ) plant consisted of a an Anaerobic digestor in two compartments ( one compartment working during lean season), followed by an Aerobic treatment stage.  Excess sludge would be dried and disposed off from sludge drying beds, area availability not being of concern.  About 300 cum/d of biogas would be generated from the anaerobic digestor, containing approx. 65 % methane, which could be productively used as fuel in the drying operations of starch and sago in the factory.  Total cost of the plant was projected at Rs. 18-20 Lakhs, which was quite economical for a plant of this size.  Total land area required for the treatment plant would be around 800 Sqm.

Treated water with BOD level of 100 mg/L or less would be reused on the tapioca fields for irrigation

The design was well received both by SAGOSERVE and the farmers I had visited during my trips to Salem.  The Pollution Control Board too was quite happy to have a workable design to meet their stipulated quality of treated water : and I was happy to have contributed a little bit in cleaning up the environment around Salem town.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                 December 29, 2011

P.S. : Every visit to Salem brings to mind an old friend of mine.  Rangarajan Kumaramangalam represented the Salem Parliamentary constituency in the years 1984-1996 as the Indian National Congress candidate and was a Minister in the Narasimha Rao Govt.  Later, he switched to the BJP and was elected from the Trichy Parliamentary constituency, and served also as a minister in the Vajpayee Govt.

Ranga was squat and heavy built in the six years I knew him as a classmate in the Madras Christian College School and was promptly nicknamed “The Rhino”.  Ranga hailed from an illustrious family of Tamilnadu who served with distinction both in the State and National politics.  A suave and accomplished politician, and an unassuming soul, Ranga died young at the age of 48.  R.I.P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangarajan_Kumaramangalam

WASTEWATER TREATMENT IN COFFEE ESTATES

Although a Piscean by birth, hills and mountains hold more fascination for me than beaches.  It may be because I have lived for several years in Santhome, a stone's throw away from the Bay of Bengal in Madras : The vast open expanse of sand and more sand, the unceasing, repetitive drone of breakers and the vista of the sea stretching to the horizon, melding with the sky holds little mystery.  

Trips to Coffee estates in Hassan and Chikamagalur in the Malnad regions of Karnataka on behalf of the Coffee Board of India were therefore to me in the nature of mixing business with pleasure. The variegated scenery of dense forests, peppered with coffee estates,   the twisting and turning drive with a gurgling mountain stream for company, the call of a myriad birds, a gentle breeze soughing through the tree tops and suddenly a silvery waterfall on a sheer rock face, battering moss laden boulders below : Ha ! the magic of the mountains !

Here is the story of journey to coffee estates in order to develop an optimal treatment scheme for wastewaters from coffee pulping operations.

51. WASTEWATER TREATMENT IN COFFEE ESTATES

BACKGOUND

In the year 1996, Mr. Philipose Mathai, IAS, then Chairman of the Coffee Board of India, requested an ex Chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to constitute a technical team to visit Coffee plantations in the Coffee  growing districts of Karnataka to study the coffee pulping operations and recommend a suitable treatment scheme for wastewaters from coffee plantations.  The Chairman picked me and two of my associates at that time for good measure to constitute a team.

We set out in an Ambassador taxi, the four of us in the month of July to visit several coffee estates, large and small.  Two large estates were the focus of our attention The Coffeeland Company Ltd. (CCL) estate in Sakleshpur, Hassan District and the Kelagur Coffee and Tea estates in Chikmagalur District.  The visit to the latter Estate was facilitated courtesy Mr. Peter Mathias, Managing partner of the Estate and brother of my dear friend and batchmate in IIT, Paul Mathias.   Paul went on to get his PhD in hardcore Chemical Engineering from MIT, USA, while I went to Vanderbilt to specialize in the slightly less demanding subject of Wastewater treatment.  The Kelagur Estate has come a long way since that time, when it was only about 300 odd Acres in extent.

http://www.kelagurmathias.com/index.html

The Managing Director of CCL had made arrangements for our stay at the historic century old Munzerabad Club in Sakleshpur ( estd. 1893).  Leaving Bangalore, just after lunch, we planned to reach Sakleshpur by 2000 hrs. in good time for a sundowner and made to order dinner by the celebrated cooks at the club :  but that was not to be.

Less than halfway to our destination, the trusty Ambassador developed serious transmission trouble which grounded the car at a hick town called Yediyur ( no connection to our own dear ex Chief Minister Yediyurappa) on NH 48, about 100 KM from Bangalore. It took the whole of 2 hours to set right the blasted thing, as we amused ourselves mingling with the local cattle milling around aimlessly in that dusty, godforsaken town.  With dusk falling, we rebooted the car and were off towards Hassan and Sakleshpur, in fast enveloping darkness.

At Hassan, a short stop to pick up the famed Hassan “Sauthe” (Cucumber), the fruit full of flesh, sweet and tender.  Reached the Munzerabad club around ten o’clock in the night, to wake up the sleeping caretaker and the cooks to cater to the dire needs of thirsty and hungry travel weary guests.

The next morning we were off to the Kelagur Estate in a village called Javali, through twisting, winding narrow lanes via Mudigere and Kottigehara, on bumpy, muddy and slushy tracks, a hallmark of Karnataka roads anywhere at any time of the year, and more so in the monsoon months.  We gained our destination after nearly three hours of tortuous but pleasant drive cutting through coffee estates and stretches of forest land, a distance of mere 50 KM.

At Kelagur, we were shown around the vast estate in their Jeep, the terrain rendered soft and slushy due to incessant rains, and fit only for all wheel drive vehicles.  Fresh water from a natural spring on the estate was harvested by means of a check dam, providing sufficient irrigation for the plantation year round : there was a tea factory on the estate and a coffee pulping machine, although idle at this time of the year.  Arabica coffee ( the superior variety) is harvested between November to December, while Robusta ripens a little later from January to March.  We had to be content therefore with a discourse on the coffee bean production process rather than a practical demonstration : but then the production process itself is quite simple, post the harvesting of berries. The true art and science in the production of coffee lies in proper management of the plantation, prevention and control of various pests, management of irrigation at the right times of the year, pruning, harvesting, management of shade trees so essential for retaining moisture in the soil, controlling soil temperature etc.  In the peak harvest season, attracting skilled labour becomes the most challenging task, since demand is high in all the estates across the three major coffee growing districts in Karnataka – Coorg, Chikmagalur and Hassan.

THE ESTATES

By Coffee Board estimates, there were nearly 38,000 small growers in Karnataka with holdings of 10 Hectares or less, accounting for nearly 55 % of coffee production in the state, and in absolute terms contributing 85,000 MT of clean coffee to the pool.  Robusta coffee was predominantly grown in these smaller estates, being the easier crop to manage with lesser inputs of skills, men and materiel.  The total production of Arabica and Robusta in that year in Karnataka was estimated to be around 160,000 MT, from a total planted area of  around 155,000 Hectares.  The larges estates, ranging from 200 Acres and over were chiefly in the hands of corporates and a few big family owned enterprises.

THE WASTEWATER

It was estimated that during the peak coffee pulping season between December to March ( which unfortunately coincides with the dry season in this part of India ), approx. 100,000 cum of day of coffee pulping wastewater would be generated.  Typically these discharges find their way into dry or drying rivulets and streams, carrying  with them immense pollution potential, without the mitigating effect of dilution waters in the water courses, and posing a real threat to drinking water sources of towns and cities downstream.

At an average  BOD ( Biochemical Oxygen Demand) level of 3,000 mg/L, approx. 300 MT of BOD would be released into the environment every day.  To put the numbers in perspective, that is the equivalent of the pollution potential from untreated sewage discharged by a city like Bangalore of that day with a population of 5 Million. : only about 3 times over.  I wonder now if somebody in the Coffee Board even read my report : the situation on the ground is not much better now from  reports I read in the newspapers.

THE TREATMENT

All things considered ( I was a great fan and avid listener of a talk show by that name on National Public Radio – NPR when I was a student in the USA for its brilliant and objective analysis and presentation of news and events of topical interest), I recommended to the Coffee Board treatment plants of modular design to cater to 10, 20, 40 and 80 KLD of wastewater to suit various users.  Basic details on the raw wastewater quantity and quality were furnished by scientists from the Central Coffee Research Institute – CCRI at Balehonnur, who also joined us during our study tour.  I also worked out preliminary details for a typical 40 KLD modular treatment plant.  In my recommendations were two alternative routes for treatment :

1. Upflow filter followed by activated sludge aerobic treatment
2. Anaerobic lagoon followed by activated sludge aerobic treatment

Design flow                       : 40 KLD 

BOD in wastewater           : 3000 mg/L

Treated water BOD            : 100 mg/L

Total Cost ( upflow filter)   : Rs. 925,000

Total cost ( An. Lagoon)    : Rs. 775,000

Chemicals                        : Rs. 10,000 per season

Power                              : Rs. 15,000 per season

Area occupied                   : 350 sqm ( Upflow filter )

                                          : 600 sqm ) An. Lagoon

The operation of the plant under both alternatives was by design kept fairly simple.  Finally, it was recommended that the Coffee Board set up demonstration plants based on the two alternatives to encourage and convince the planters to invest money in protection of their own environment and that of their neighbours and population at large downstream.

I have grave doubts if any of these recommendations have seen the light of day.  I only read in the newspapers and reports of the Pollution Control Board that Anaerobic lagoons are in place.  Their efficacy and treatment efficiency does bear further study.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                      January 02, 2012