DAIRY INDUSTRY WASTEWATER TREATMENT
The dairy industry generates on an average 2.5-3.0 liters of waste per
liter of waste water per liter of milk processes. Generally this
wastewater contains large quantities of fat, casein, lactose, and
inorganic salt, beside detergent, sanitizer, etc. Used for washing.
These all contribute largely toward their biological oxygen demand
(BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and oil and grease much
higher than the permissible limits
Reuse of dairy waste serves two propose, reduces fresh water
requirement and sewage generation
Due to the growth in the costs of collecting and treating water, and
with the treatment and discharge of effluents, reuse has become an
increasingly viable option for industries. Conventional treatment
systems for these wastewaters include the use of primary treatment
to remove solids, oils and fats; secondary biological treatment to
remove organic matter and nutrients; and, in some cases, tertiary
treatment such as polishing. However, several problems have been
reported, such as high production of scum, poor sludge settleability,
low resistance to organic shock load, difficulties in removing
nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and problems in the
degradation of fats, oils and other specific types of pollutants.
In this scenario, one of the most promising technologies for
wastewater treatment and reuse are membrane separation systems
and the combining of these systems with other technologies
Membrane bioreactor (MBR) as secondary and nanofiltration (NF) as
tertiary treatment for the reuse of dairy wastewater, focusing on
MBR showed high removal efficiency for COD (mean of 98%) and
nutrients (86% total nitrogen and 89% phosphorus). However, the
concentration of dissolved solids in the permeate still prevented its
reuse. In order to remove these solids, the MBR permeate was
nanofiltrated, and three different cross-flow velocities were
evaluated. Due to lower external fouling and better quality of the
permeate, the velocity of 7.8 m/s was selected as the most suitable
for the NF system. The optimum permeate recovery rate was
determined to be 45% since, at values higher than this, the quality of
the permeate dropped. The proposed treatment system (MBR + NF)
showed overall efficiencies of 99.9% for COD and 93.1% for total
solids.
MEMBRANE BIOREACTORS (MBR)
Consist of biological reactors associated with membrane
separation processes, usually with micro or ultrafiltration.
Among the advantages of MBRs, it is notable that they are
compact and modular systems, with low sludge production,
that show total removal of suspended solids independently of
the characteristics of sedimentability of the biomass, and that
generate high quality treated wastewater. The wastewaters
from MBRs may be reused directly for unrestricted irrigation or
for recreational purposes after removal of the residual color .
However, if the water use requires a higher quality, such as for
indirect reusable drinking water or for industrial reuse, a
tertiary treatment with nanofiltration or reverse osmosis, for
example, may be necessary.
The MBR operated with a mean MLVSS concentration of 19,500
mg/L. This value, which may be considered high given that the
mean MLVSS concentration in an MBR with a submerged
membrane module fluctuates between 10,000 and 15,000
mg/L , is justified by the fact of the wastewater having a high
concentration of organic matter which is highly biodegradable .
Therefore, there was sufficient substrate available for the
microorganisms for both the catabolism and the synthesis of
new cells.
(MLSS consists mostly of microorganisms and non-
biodegradable suspended matter. MLSS is an important part of
the activated sludge process to ensure that there is a sufficient
quantity of active biomass available to consume the applied
quantity of organic pollutant at any time. This is known as the
food to microorganism ratio, more commonly notated as the
F/M ratio.)
In better words, a crucial factor for a successful anaerobic high-
rate treatment is the retention of all slow-growing
microorganisms. Hence, when sludge granulation is hindered or
lacking, membranes can be applied for biomass separation and
recycling back into the reactor. Therefore, the interest in using
different membrane configurations is driven by the requirement for
increasing productivity. Thus, full-scale implementation of the
AnMBR technology will be highly dependent on flux levels acong-
term operation.
UASB
Anaerobic granular sludge bed technology refers to a special kind of
reactor concept for the "high rate" anaerobic treatment of
wastewater. The concept was initiated with upward-flow anaerobic
sludge blanket (UASB) reactor. A scheme of a UASB is shown in Figure
1 below. From a hardware perspective, a UASB reactor is at first
appearance nothing more than an empty tank (thus an extremely
simple and inexpensive design). Wastewater is distributed into the
tank at appropriately spaced inlets. The wastewater passes upwards
through an anaerobic sludge bed where the microorganisms in the
sludge come into contact with wastewater-substrates. The sludge bed
is composed of microorganisms that naturally form granules (pellets)
of 0.5 to 2 mm diameter that have a high sedimentation velocity and
thus resist wash-out from the system even at high hydraulic loads.
The resulting anaerobic degradation process typically is responsible
for the production of gas (e.g. biogas containing CH4 and CO2). The
upward motion of released gas bubbles causes hydraulic turbulence
that provides reactor mixing without any mechanical parts
CURRENT PLAN -: WE USE A USAB (Up Flow - Anaerobic Sludge
Blanket Reactor) BECAUSE IT ALLOWS FOR COMPACT, CHEAPER
DESIGNS AND BIOGAS PRODUCTION AS WELL AS EXPEDITE THE
TREATMENT OF THE WASTEWATER. THEN WE USE A MBR WITH
DIFFERENT MEMBRANE COMPOSITION (2)
FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS-: THEN USE A REVERSE OSMOSIS OR
NANOFILTRATION SO AS TO INCREASE ITS QUALITY FURTHER.
Nanofiltration (NF)
It’s an intermediate process of ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis which carries
advantages such as the efficient removal of dissolved solutes, including
multivalent ions and organic compounds of high molar mass; however, with
lower pressure requirements and higher flows than reverse osmosis . Studies
show that NF is an efficient system for the secondary or tertiary treatment of
wastewaters, aiming at generating water for industrial, agricultural and/or
indirect drinking reuse. However, the evaluation of the optimum operating
conditions for each specific NF system allows improvement of the overall
performance of the process, both in terms of quality of the permeate and
fouling control.