The objective of this article was to evaluate the water reuse as a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) revitalization tool. To verify a real case, this study was developed in a corrugated paperboard package industry whose WWTP presented a low performance. The identification of reuse opportunities and the mathematic simulation of its impact on the WWTP, by the means of load balance, pointed out the reuse of primary treatment effluent as a revitalization opportunity. Therefore, this effluent was reused in starch adhesive production, reducing the affluent BOD5 into the activated sludge over 60% (59.14 to 22.15 kg/day). Thus, the WWTP performance was significantly raised, resulting in a substantial reduction in contaminant load dumped into the water body with consequent observation of the standards of effluent release environmental regulation.
water reuse; wastewater treatment; revitalization; industry
