Risk assessment for chemical pollution of dairy effluents from a milk processing plant located in Bechar (Southwest of Algeria)

Abstract

Milk and dairy products’ production lines generate pollution in the form of food waste. The management of this waste concerns professionals that fit the purpose of this study to assess the chemical risk of the raw liquid effluents that are discharged from a milk processing plant located in Bechar (Southwest of Algeria) by analyzing the main chemical indicator parameters of water pollution following official analytical methods. A total of ten samples were analyzed during the months of February, March and April of the year 2019. The obtained results were interpreted according to the regulatory requirements recommended by the Algerian standard related to threshold limit of physicochemical parameters’ values. The obtained results showed pollution signs revealed by high levels of the organic matters, expressed by significant means related to the following parameters: chemical oxygen demand (COD: 810.33 mg/L), 5 days-biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5: 797.91 mg/L), total suspended solids (TSS: 47.3 mg/L) and turbidity (174.014 NTU) exceeding those required by the national standard, except other physicochemical parameters, such as pH, conductivity, sulfate, nitrate and nitrite contents that did not exceed the threshold of acceptable values. Although these raw effluents present a high organic load expressed by average BOD5/COD ratio equal to 0.985, they constitute organic matters in a dissolved form (average value of the TSS/BOD5 ratio = 0.076). Furthermore, The COD/BOD5 ratio that had an average value equal to 1.015 underlines the biodegradability character of discharged dairy effluents. The high pollution levels which are aggravated by the lack of wastewater treatment can hurt the environment and the biological diversity and, therefore the humans' health. This requires an immediate intervention for a solution, where it is very important that proper wastewater treatment systems should be installed for the environment protection and for the ecological balance. Otherwise, it may constitute a risk to the public health on medium- to long-term by affecting the quality of the underground reservoir known as the main source of supply for the inhabitants of arid and semi-arid areas.

Removal performance for thermotolerant coliforms and fecal streptococci from dairy effluents by Kenadsa’s natural green clay (Bechar-Algeria) in a fixed-bed column

“…It includes an administrative block, a manufacturing workshop with two cold rooms and a steaming room, three collection basins for liquid effluents from the industry. The dairy unit has initially generated 31 direct jobs and as many other indirect jobs in the form of contracts (Benyagoub et al 2018a;Benyagoub 2019;Nabbou et al 2020).…”

“…The industry discharges into the environment medium a volume of raw dairy effluents from 50 to 75m 3 /Day, where the effluents' nature is mainly milk, cooling water, and chemical products (detergents, caustic soda, and nitric acid) used in the cleaning and disinfecting operation for equipment, and piping circuit of dairy industry (Nabbou et al 2020).…”

“…The dairy effluents' samples were taken after completing the unit's production from the basins where the sterile glass bottle is immerged 30 to 50 cm down from the surface. A total of three samples were taken, the sample is immediately identified by a reference, then analyzed before and after treatment using the clay where the samples' pH was measured in situ using a pH meter (HANNA HI2210, Italy) (Nabbou et al 2020) (Table 1).…”

Risk Assessment of Chemical Pollution of Industrial Effluents From A Soap Production Plant Located In Bafoussam (Western Region of Cameroon)

“…A very high K coe cient implies the presence of elements in the water that prevent bacterial growth, such as, detergents, metal salts, hydrocarbons, phenols, etc. [14].…”

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“…High concentration of total solids during summer was probably due to squat quantity of water. In effluent, total solids, total dissolved solids; total suspended solids are encompassing mainly of carbonates, bicarbonates, chlorides, sulphate, phosphate, nitrate and organic matter [18,19]. Chlorides are conventionally there in natural water.…”