Performance of an Integrated Membrane Process with Electrochemical Pre-Treatment on Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater Purification

Abstract

Industrial activities produce a variety of pollutants that may not be easily treated using centralized wastewater treatment systems based on a single treatment unit. The variability of the pollutants brings the importance of industrial-specific integrated wastewater treatment plants such as integrated membrane filtration systems. However, the performance of a membrane filtration process can be highly affected by the presence of high amounts of suspended particles in the raw wastewater. Therefore, proper selection of a pre-treatment unit prior to a membrane filtration wastewater treatment system is a key aspect of its performance. This study investigated the performance of an integrated membrane filtration treatment system connected to an electrochemical process (pre-treatment) on the purification of a poultry slaughterhouse wastewater toward achieving a high-quality effluent. The industrial-scale treatment plant installed at the Izhevsk Production Corporative (PC) poultry farm in Kazakhstan is composed of an electrochemical, ultrafiltration (UF), and reverse osmosis (RO) as the main treatment units. From the analysis results, the electrochemical pre-treatment unit was observed to be highly effective for the removal of some physicochemical parameters such as turbidity, color, total suspended solids, total iron, aluminum, chemical oxygen demand, and biochemical oxygen demand; with removal efficiency ranging from 71 to 85%. The low removal efficiency of the pre-treatment system was also observed from free and total chlorine, nitrites, nitrates, phosphates, and ammonium nitrogen; with removal efficiency ranging from 4 to 45%. While in general, the overall treatment train was observed to be highly efficient for some physicochemical parameters such as turbidity, color, total suspended solids, as well as chemical and biochemical oxygen demand; maintaining almost 100% removal efficiency throughout the study period. Also, the high removal efficiency of the electrochemical pre-treatment processes led to a relatively low rate of cake formation on the membrane filters.

Characterization of Slaughterhouse Wastewater and Development of Treatment Techniques: A Review

“…Recently, a study conducted by Meiramkulova et al (2021) identified some pathogenic microbes (Salmonella coliphages, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus etc.) in wastewater samples collected from the Izhevsk PC poultry slaughterhouse located in Izhevsk village, Arshalinsky District, in the Akmola Region of the Republic of Kazakhstan [17]. Other characterization studies assessed potential for strains to be used as biomarkers for tracking indicators of contamination.…”

Treatment of Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater with Membrane Technologies: A Review

“…Without proper pretreatment, membranes will suffer severe membrane fouling, hindering the membrane performance, and some heavy fouling could even cause membrane failure. For example, Meiramkulova et al [21] investigated the performance of an integrated membrane process with electrochemical pretreatment on PSWW purification, and their findings showed that the electrochemical pretreatment was highly efficient at reducing turbidity, color, TSS, COD, and BOD by 71-85%. In addition, the pretreatment resulted in a low rate of cake formation on the membrane [21].…”

Treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater using electrocoagulation: a review

“…In a study by Sardari et al (2018), EC was followed by ultrafiltration for treating PSW and 5 minutes of electrolysis time reduced fouling on the ultrafiltration membrane significantly. Meiramkulova et al (2020a) investigated the performance of an integrated membrane process with EC pre-treatment on PSW. The findings showed that EC pre-treatment unit was highly effective for the removal of parameters such as turbidity, colour, TSS, COD, and BOD by 71-85%.…”