Innovative slaughterhouse wastewater treatment technology

“Slaughterhouse wastewater is a challenging waste stream to handle. The wastewater is characterized by high loads of biodegradable organic compounds, oil and grease, nitrogen, and phosphorus due to the presence of high suspended solids and colloidal compounds such as blood, protein, fat, and cellulose. A treatment train conventionally consist of pretreatment to decrease high suspended solids (SS) concentration, chemical addition (polymers), and biological treatment system are commonly implemented. The proposed self-regulated anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (AnSBR) technology for this TKI project could be applied to meat processing plants that produce large amounts of high-strength slaughterhouse wastewater, including its potential for on-site resource recovery of energy.
This TKI project aimed to test, using lab and pilot trials, a new anaerobic technology, a non-conventional, self- regulated anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (AnSBR) system, for the treatment of high-strength slaughterhouse wastewater. The novel system operates in sequences but does not work as a conventional AnSBR. This technology has been designed to enable reaction and settling phases to happen simultaneously within each cycle, which results in much longer settling periods without compromising the duration of the reaction phase. Even though other anaerobic technologies can reach high organic removal efficiencies, a robust, anaerobic single-stage (train simplification) and low-cost solution for the slaughterhouse industry is not currently available. Reactor stability/robustness for the high-strength slaughterhouse wastewater (extreme organic loading rate fluctuations
and fat, oil, and grease (FOG) concentrations) is of highly important for the partners of the research proposal based on industrial experiences and for the direction of scaling up the reactor technology.
This TKI project successfully tested the novel AnSBR system technology for treating protein and lipid-rich wastewater from a slaughterhouse and determined the key operational parameters through continuous pilot/lab trials and batch tests. The experiments were carried out to understand the degradation of proteins/lipids compounds on slaughterhouse streams and assessed the overall performance of this reactor configuration.”

(Citation:Muñoz Sierra, J.D., Morgado, A.L., et.al. – KWR 2022.078 Innovative slaughterhouse wastewater treatment technology (May 2023))