A Sequential Membrane Process of Ultrafiltration Forward Osmosis and Reverse Osmosis for Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment and Reuse

Abstract

To address some challenges of food security and sustainability of the poultry processing industry, a sequential membrane process of ultrafiltration (UF), forward osmosis (FO), and reverse osmosis (RO) is proposed to treat semi-processed poultry slaughterhouse wastewater (PSWW) and water recovery. The pretreatment of PSWW with UF removed 36.7% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 38.9% of total phosphorous (TP), 24.7% of total solids (TS), 14.5% of total volatile solids (TVS), 27.3% of total fixed solids (TFS), and 12.1% of total nitrogen (TN). Then, the PSWW was treated with FO membrane in FO mode, pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) mode, and L-DOPA coated membrane in the PRO mode. The FO mode was optimal for PSWW treatment by achieving the highest average flux of 10.4 ± 0.2 L/m2-h and the highest pollutant removal efficiency; 100% of COD, 100% of TP, 90.5% of TS, 85.3% of TVS, 92.1% of TFS, and 37.2% of TN. The performance of the FO membrane was entirely restored by flushing the membrane with 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate solution. RO significantly removed COD, TS, TVS, TFS, and TP. However, TN was reduced by only 62% because of the high ammonia concentration present in the draw solution. Overall, the sequential membrane process (UF-FO-RO) showed excellent performance by providing high rejection efficiency for pollutant removal and water recovery.

An Evaluation of Microfiltration and Ultrafiltration Pretreatment on the Performance of Reverse Osmosis for Recycling Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater

“…Nevertheless, the parameters measured in the product water achieved through all of these processes meet the required U.S. standards, including TN levels less than 10 mg/L and TDS levels below 500 mg/L, suitable for wastewater in the poultry industry for poultry processing [41][42][43]. In our previous study, Fatima et al [44], we used membrane technologies, including UF, forward osmosis, and RO to treat and recycle PSWW. The UF-FO-RO membrane process completely removed the TSs, TVSs, TFSs, and TP from PSWW.…”

Forward Osmosis Application for the Removal of Emerging Contaminants from Municipal Wastewater: A Review

“…The main difference between these membranes is their pore size and the level of filtration accuracy they provide. Both FO and RO membranes are used for the separation of water from dissolved solutes, such as salts, and can be used in combination with other membrane processes, such as UF, NF or MF [ 38 ]. RO needs to be preceded by another of these processes, whereas FO can be used as a standalone process or as a step-in hybrid process as convenient.…”