Treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater using a static granular bed reactor (SGBR) coupled with ultrafiltration (UF) membrane system

Abstract

The South African poultry industry has grown exponentially in recent years due to an increased demand for their products. As a result, poultry plants consume large volumes of high quality water to ensure that hygienically safe poultry products are produced. Furthermore, poultry industries generate high strength wastewater, which can be treated successfully at low cost using anaerobic digesters. In this study, the performance of a bench-scale mesophilic static granular bed reactor (SGBR) containing fully anaerobic granules coupled with an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane system, as a post-treatment system, was investigated. The poultry slaughterhouse wastewater was characterized by a chemical oxygen demand (COD) range between 1,223 and 9,695mg/L, average biological oxygen demand of 2,375mg/L and average fats, oil and grease (FOG) of 554mg/L. The SGBR anaerobic reactor was operated for 9 weeks at different hydraulic retention times (HRTs), i.e. 55 and 40 h, with an average organic loading rate (OLR) of 1.01 and 3.14g COD/L.day. The SGBR results showed an average COD, total suspended solids (TSS) and FOG removal of 93%, 95% and 90% respectively, for both OLR. The UF post-treatment results showed an average of COD, TSS and FOG removal of 64%, 88% and 48%, respectively. The overall COD, TSS and FOG removal of the system (SGBR and UF membrane) was 98%, 99.8%, and 92.4%, respectively. The results of the combined SGBR reactor coupled with the UF membrane showed a potential to ensure environmentally friendly treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater.

Optimization of the COD Removal Efficiency for a Static Granular Bed Reactor Treating Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater

“…Debik & Coskun (2009) operated a SGBR at HRTs of 48 and 36 h for the treatment of PSW; and achieved COD removal efficiencies higher than 90% at OLRs ranging between 2.53 and 4.97 g COD/Lday. Similarly, Basitere et al (2017) reported COD, TSS and FOG removal efficiencies of 93%, 95% and 90%, respectively, when operating a SGBR for PSW treatment at HRTs of 55 and 40 h with average OLRs of 1.01 and 3.14 g COD/Lday.…”

“…9 to 55 h and OLRs i.e. 0.63 to 9.72 g COD/Lday, under varying temperature conditions (Debik & Coskun, 2009;Lim & Fox, 2011;Park et al, 2012;Oh et al, 2015;Basitere et al, 2017), which is indicative of the robustness of the SGBR. Whilst it is evident that the HRT and OLR affects the COD removal efficiency, in this study neither an increase nor decrease in the HRT or OLR had long lasting impact nor adverse effects on the overall biological performance of the SGBR in terms of its COD removal efficiency.…”

“…The OLR and HRT were chosen based on their direct impact on the COD removal efficiency and the chosen ranges were based on the operating conditions used for the SGBR in this study, i.e. conditions reported in Debik & Coskun (2009) and Basitere et al (2017). Design Expert ® 10.0.3 statistical software (Stat-Ease, Inc., USA) was used for the experimental design.…”

A Comparative Study of Biogas Production from Cattle Slaughterhouse Wastewater Using Conventional and Modified Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) Reactors

“…The investigation of Borja et al Several studies on anaerobic digestion have shown that biogas production and COD removal can be more efficient with changing feed strategies. For instance, the research of Basitere et al [40] demonstrated that biogas production was improved when feedstock was fed more often than once per day. Similarly, the methanogens were not inhibited throughout the study period of the R2 reactor as both the levels of VFAs, as well as the pH, were stable.…”

Facile modification of polysulfone hollow‐fiber membranes via the incorporation of well‐dispersed iron oxide nanoparticles for protein purification

“…One of the industries that contributes a large volume of wastewater is the meat processing sector, where wastewater is constantly produced in animal slaughterhouses . Slaughterhouse wastewater is composed of a complex composition of proteins, fats, and fibers from the slaughtering process of animals . A reliable water‐separation technique is needed so that detrimental contaminants and pollutants in wastewater can be eliminated to a safe level.…”