Chicken slaughterhouse wastewater disposal: the challenges ahead

Slaughterhouses generate large volumes of highly polluted wastewater composed mainly of large amounts of organic and inorganic pollutants as well as solids which pose a threat to the environment. Fresh undiluted wastewater was collected twice a day for a period of six weeks from a chicken slaughterhouse located in a suburb area to investigate the properties of slaughterhouse wastewater. The average results indicated very high pollutant levels of selected water quality parameters such as pH, COD, BOD, TSS, TDS, colour, turbidity, total coliform and NH3-N which were 7.17, 4979 mg/L, 1360 mg/L, 515 mg/L, 545 mg/L, 14,163 PtCo, 697 NTU, 1.2 × 108 CFU/100mL and 110 mg/L, respectively. These results were compared with the values stated by Malaysia Environmental Quality Regulation (2000) for effluent discharge. It can be concluded that most of the parameters are not suitable for direct discharge to the water streams without prior treatment. It is however recommended for most abattoir wastewater to be discharged separately from the community sewerage systems or treated separately as hazardous wastewater as a way of reducing some of the dangers imminent in the reuse of such wastewater and also clogging of sewerage pipes

Aerobic and anaerobic sewage biodegradable processes: the gap analysis

Wastewaterhas become a significant risk and danger to both physical environment and human/animal life due to inefficient management processes. There are many technologies applied in wastewater management. Among them biological treatment methods are widely used as they are cost effective, highly efficient, simple in application, less in chemical usage,less energy consuming and environment friendly.This review covers many aspects of biological wastewater treatment through aerobic and anaerobic methods with special attention on study on Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB), the Expanded Granular Sludge Blanket (EGSB) and Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket-aerobic digester (UASBaerobic digester).We provide a comprehensive account onthe literature on aerobic and anaerobic systems of sewage treatment with UASB, EGSB and UASB-aerobic digester reactors,a comparative analysis on the treatment efficiency of each method, outlining the merits, demerits and constraints.An appraisal tothe combination of aerobic and anaerobic systems, specifically the UASB-Aerobic digester has also been given

Adsorption and biodegradation of pollutants from livestock wastewater by aged refuse bioreactor

This study investigated the characteristics of landfilled solid wastes, “aged refuse”, for adsorption and biodegradation processes, as an affordable livestock wastewater treatment option. Presently, the UPM dairy farm discharges about 2000-2200 L/day of untreated wastewater into a nearby river, raising serious environmental concerns, especially regarding water pollution. The parameters studied were pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity, total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total phosphorous (TP) and total coliform. Three sources of livestock wastewater (Dairy farm, chicken slaughter house and fishpond), were examined, while the aged refuse was collected from Air Hitam sanitary landfill, Selangor, Malaysia. The results revealed aged refuse characteristics such as pH 7.14, moisture content 29.5%, organic content 9.90%, total coliform 7.1 x 106 CFU/100 mL, which are suitable conditions for biodegradation. Hydraulic conductivity 0.31 cm/s, porosity (n) 51%, and bulk density (ρ) 1.23 g/cm3, are suitable conditions for free water flow and air diffusion. The available exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, K, Na), will promote ion exchange while low metal concentrations of (Pb = 0.858, Cr = 14.0, Cu = 1.10 and Zn = 12.16 mg/kg), will reduce interference. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), showed available pore spaces, and BET surface area 3.376 m2/g, which are suitable for adsorption, while the Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR), revealed functional groups of carbonyl, carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, with strong adsorption capacity. The batch adsorption study indicated the effects of pH, dosage and contact time on removal efficiency, and optimum conditions were; pH 6, dosage 2-4 g/100 mL, adsorbent size ≤ 2 mm, contact time 10-180 minutes, agitation speed 250 rpm and ambient temperature conditions. The maximum removal efficiency were about 94% (COD, BOD), 91% (TSS, TDS), 97% colour and 88% NH3-N. The correlation coefficient R2 (0.9026 to 0.9999) for Langmuir, and (0.9422 to 0.9999) for Freundlich isotherms, fitted well to experimental data. Furthermore, an aged refuse bioreactor (15 cm diameter and 80 cm height), was developed and used for livestock wastewater treatment at a loading rate of 4 L m3/day and flow rate of 0.1 L/min. The reactor was very effective after over 10 hours retention time which resulted in high removal rates > 90% for COD, BOD5, TSS, Turbidity, Colour, TP and total coliform, TDS = 62%, NH3-N = 60% and TN = 46%. The effluent quality for most of the parameters meet the Malaysian effluent discharge standard B, while alternating aerobic and anaerobic systems were recommended in future development for enhanced nitrogen removal. The Malaysian aged refuse has very significant characteristics such as adequate pore structure and surface characteristics, huge bacteria population, high porosity, high moisture and organic content, and has shown efficient adsorption and biodegradation processes in different livestock wastewater treatment. Moreover, it is a simple and affordable wastewater treatment technology, and therefore proposed for UPM dairy farm to experiment on a larger scale, for future development and application

Recycling of fishpond wastewater by adsorption of pollutants using aged refuse as an alternative low-cost adsorbent

The waste to wealth initiative has been championed by many researchers through the use of waste materials as adsorbents for wastewater treatment. The aged refuse became a research interest due to its availability, low cost and adsorption capacity. The aged refuse used was collected from the Air Hitam Sanitary Landfill site in Selangor, Malaysia which is more than 8 years of placement. The material characterization showed characteristics such as high porosity (51%), bulk density (ρ), 1.23 g cm−3, total surface area (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller) of 3.376 m2 g−I, capacity for exchange of cations and organic content of 9.90% which are ideal conditions for adsorption. The optimized operating conditions during treatment were dosage of 2 g 100 mL−1, pH 6, particle size ≤ 2 mm, agitation speed 250 rpm, and contact time of 70 min. The results showed maximum reduction efficiency of 91% for Chemical oxygen demand, Total suspends solids and Total dissolved solids and 84, 88 and 95% for Biochemical oxygen demand, and Colour respectively and over 60% removal was observed in 10 min. Freundlich model was used to test the experimental data and it gave good correlation with R2 values very close to 1. The aged refuse technology is suitable for wastewater recovery and reuse through innovative column based aged refuse biofilter which incorporates adsorption, filtration, biodegradation and sedimentation processes