Blog and News

Slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment Plant in India

Slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment Plant in India

Slaughterhouse wastewater treatment plants in India must use three processes to treat animal waste: Preliminary settling, Activated sludge, and Chemical coagulation. Let's look at each one in turn. Which process will suit your needs best? Read on to learn how to choose the best one for your facility. This will help you reduce the amount of animal waste you're responsible for while still ensuring the quality of your wastewater.

Preliminary settling process

The preliminary settling process is an effective natural method for treating slaughterhouse wastewater without chemical additions. After a few workers realised the importance of this process, more intensive studies were conducted. Studies were based on diluted pre-settled wastewater before the preliminary settling process was developed. This study investigated the effluent under various conditions and concluded that up to 50% of the pollutants in slaughterhouse wastewater could be degraded by biological treatment. Nonetheless, there was still a high level of remaining COD, which indicates the need for more effective physicochemical treatment.

The wastewater discharged from slaughterhouses poses severe problems in municipal sewage systems. The wastewater contains a high concentration of organic matter and has a high chemical oxygen demand. It is critical to treat slaughterhouse wastewater before it is discharged into the sewer system. Standard methods of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment include fine screening, sedimentation, coagulation-flocculation, and trickling filters.

In the preliminary settling process, raw slaughterhouse wastewater was allowed to settle for 24 h before adding coagulant. This allowed the wastewater to settle at a lower BOD concentration and reduce the TSS concentration. This process was successful in removing COD and TSS. During this process, the particles became increasingly larger, resulting in a higher level of COD removal.

The preliminary settling process was used to reduce the concentration of grease and oil in the effluent after reducing the water chemistry to acceptable levels. Biological processes are cost-effective but require large reactor volumes, long hydraulic retention time, and biomass concentration. Physico-chemical processes are also used for the treatment of slaughterhouse wastewater, such as coagulation-flocculation units.

In a laboratory study, 100 mg/L PACl was added to the waste. The solution was then electrocoagulation for four hours, which effectively removed 99% of BOD and COD. Interestingly, this combination treatment method is superior to electrocoagulation alone. This study also shows that a good fat separator is crucial in the efficacy of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment.

The preliminary settling process at the slaughterhouse wastewater treatment plant in India PCB is crucial to the process. When the wastewater is pretreated, it is used as feed for the next treatment steps. It also promotes the formation of anaerobic granules. Therefore, it is recommended that the initial settling process be carried out to ensure optimum efficiency of the wastewater treatment plant.

Activated sludge process
Slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment Plant in India

The bacterial communities in activated sludge have been studied extensively. Both culture-dependent and molecular approaches have revealed considerable diversity in activated sludge, with a high percentage of species in a small number of taxa. The most abundant phyla in WWTPs include Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria.

Slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment Plant in India

The biological processes used in the treatment of wastewater are based on the activity of microorganisms in the waste. Therefore, creating optimal conditions for these organisms to grow is necessary, resulting in a stable bacterial ecosystem. The quality of the activated sludge is determined by its microbial community and biotic components, which play an essential role in depuration. Indicator organisms control the reactor's operation. To assess the quality of activated sludge, various indices are used. These indices offer information about the effluent's characteristics and operating conditions.

The biological sludge process involves the addition of oxygen and air to the sewage. Activated sludge contains a large proportion of saprotrophic bacteria and mucilaginous filamentous fungus. While this microbial community is relatively uncommon, it is still important to understand its role in the treatment of wastewater.

The main goal of this process is to accelerate the rate at which waste material is decomposed in water. The process was first developed in 1914 and was initially tested in a "mobile" pilot plant made of wood. The pilot-plant unit had most of the typical characteristics of the process used today, including a fill-and-draw arrangement or a sequencing batch reactor.

Activated sludge is the result of a biological process that removes nutrients and carbonaceous matter from wastewater. Activated sludge is a mixture of different organisms that have been isolated and grown under controlled conditions. This mixture is then passed through a series of processes to reduce the level of nutrients and ammonia in the effluent. The final polishing process then removes the remaining flocs.

Despite the high level of treatment efficiency, solids handling was still an issue at the plant. Although digestion was initially preferred, it had many problems, such as overfilling and heating coils. Additionally, the sludge was not entirely removed, and this led to supplemental incineration, where it was finally destroyed. Activated sludge was no longer recommended as a final disposal method.

Chemical coagulation

A recent study on the biodegradability of slaughterhouse wastewater in India has demonstrated that this process is superior to other methods. The combined effects of AOPs and biological treatment are operationally advantageous, and the combined process produces highly biodegradable effluents. Furthermore, it can generate renewable electricity, which makes MFC an attractive alternative treatment method for slaughterhouse wastewater.

The effluent from slaughterhouses contains a high content of organic matter. Therefore, chemical coagulation and electrocoagulation were studied for their efficiency in removing major pollutants from this type of wastewater. The rate of removal increased as the concentration of PACl and voltage increased. Combined chemical and electrocoagulation processes are superior to electrocoagulation alone. Hence, more attention is needed to the process' efficacy.

A slaughterhouse wastewater treatment plant must utilize 500 m3/d of freshwater, which is needed for slaughter, debarking, and rendering. A portion of the wastewater treated at the ETP is used for other irrigation, cooling, and floor washing processes. The remaining wastewater is pumped to a septic tank for disposal. Fortunately, these ETPs use treated wastewater for other uses.

Methane was the main chemical oxygen demand removed during the slaughterhouse wastewater treatment. The total amount of volatile suspended solids accumulated in the effluent was 0.068 kg/L. This high percentage of methanization indicates that the majority of soluble and suspended organic matter in slaughterhouse wastewater was degraded during treatment. If the process is used for livestock feed, it may become an alternative feed for other industries.

Meat processing effluents are considered one of the most hazardous substances in the world, owing to their complex composition of proteins, fats, fibers, pathogens, pharmaceuticals, and high organic content. The effluents are evaluated using bulk parameters, including biochemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended solids. Further, these effluents are also high in biochemical oxygen demand.