The 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 1,223 and 9,695mg/L, average biological oxygen demand of 2,375mg/L and average fats, oil and grease (FOG) of 554mg/L. The SGBR anaerobic reactor was operated for 9 weeks at different hydraulic retention times (HRTs), i.e. 55 and 40 h, with an average organic loading rate (OLR) of 1.01 and 3.14g COD/L.day. The SGBR results showed an average COD, total suspended solids (TSS) and FOG removal of 93%, 95% and 90% respectively, for both 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%, and 92.4%, respectively. The results of the combined SGBR reactor coupled with the UF membrane showed a potential to ensure environmentally friendly treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater.

Generally, slaughterhouses have the largest consumption of fresh water and thus generate large quantities of high strength wastewater, which can be treated successfully using low cost biological treatment processes. In this study, the feasibility of using an expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) anaerobic reactor coupled with anoxic and aerobic bioreactors for the treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater was investigated. The poultry slaughterhouse was characterized by high chemical oxygen demand (COD), 2 to 6 g/L, with average biological oxygen demand of 2.4 g/L and average fats, oil and grease (FOG) being 0.55 g/L. A continuous EGSB anaerobic reactor was operated for 26 days at different hydraulic retention times (HRT), i.e. 7, 4, 3 days, and organic loading rates (OLR) of 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 g COD/L.day, respectively, to assess the bioremediation of the poultry slaughterhouse wastewater. The average COD removal from the EGSB was 40%, 57% and 55% at the different OLR and HRT assessed. At high OLR of 1.0 g COD/L.day, the overall COD removal from the system (EGSB-anoxic/aerobic) averaged 65%. The system experienced periodical sludge washout during high FOG and suspended solids loading. It was concluded that the EGSB system requires a dissolved air flotation system, for FOG/suspended solid reduction, as the performance of the overall system was observed to deteriorate over time due to the presence of a high quantity of FOG including suspended solids.

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