Treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater using a Static Granular Bed Reactor (SGBR) coupled with Ultrafiltration (UF) Membrane system

Abstract

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 1223 and 9695 mg/L, average biological oxygen demand (BOD) of 2375 mg/L and average fats, oil and grease (FOG) of 554 mg/L. The SGBR anaerobic reac-tor was operated for 9 weeks at different hydraulic retention times, (HRTs), i.e. 55 and 40 hrs, with an average organic loading rate (OLR) of 1.01 and 3.14 g COD/L.day. The SGBR results showed an av-erage COD, total suspended solids (TSS) and FOG removal of 93%, 95% and 90% respectively, for both organic loading rates (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%, 92.4% respectively. The results of the com-bined SGBR reactor coupled with the UF membrane showed a potential to ensure environmentally friendly treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater.