Second Cheese Whey Treatment Using Zeolite under Continuous Flow Mode and Its Application on Wheat Growth

Abstract

The efficiency of natural zeolite to treat second cheese whey (SCW) and remove ammonium from artificial wastewater (AWW) was examined. Since zeolite has been reported to improve nitrogen availability in soils, its effect on wheat plant growth was also examined. Continuing a previous study using batch reactors, results are presented concerning experiments in fixed-bed columns under continuous operation. Results from the continuous flow column experiments using AWW and zeolite (2.0–2.8 mm) indicated that low flow rates (4 mL/min and 8 mL/min) did not significantly affect zeolite adsorption ability, while maximum zeolite adsorption capacity reached 15.30 mg NH4+-N/g. Finally, the effect of zeolite saturated with NH4+-N on plant growth was examined. The application of saturated zeolite affected significantly wheat plant growth and resulted in faster growth and higher biomass production.

Agro-Industrial Wastewater Treatment with Decentralized Biological Treatment Methods

“…Desorption experiments also showed that ammonium and organic matter were not easily released from zeolite, indicating the potential use of saturated zeolite for soil amendment. The follow-up study [9] included continuous flow column experiments, which also proved the ability of zeolite to adsorb nitrogen from second cheese whey, achieving an adsorption capacity of 15.30 mg NH 4 + -N/g. The saturated zeolite was used in plant growth experiments, which showed a positive effect of saturated zeolite on the plant production.…”

“…A variety of agro-industrial wastewaters and treatment methods are presented in the papers discussed in this Special Issue. Two of the papers [8,9] focus on the use of natural zeolite in second cheese whey treatment, aiming to adsorb and recover nitrogen. The first paper [8] presented laboratory-scale experiments using artificial wastewater and second cheese whey.…”

Dairy By-Products: A Review on the Valorization of Whey and Second Cheese Whey

“…Generally, whey proteins are highly valued and come in many different forms, such as whey powder (8-12% protein and over 70% lactose), WPC, containing between 30-89% of protein and WPI containing over 90% of protein and almost no lactose (around 3%). WPH contain about 80% of proteins that have been hydrolyzed by specific enzymes, being thus more easily metabolized and have nutraceutical properties [10,21,45].…”

“…WPC production involves a final drying step which is carried out by spray or freeze drying. The cost of such equipment is high, which hampers their application in small/medium scale dairy industries [21].…”

“…168 million tons of cheese whey [23]. About 50% of this whey is considered as waste, used as animal feed, biofertilizer in irrigation systems, or discharged without treatment [21,22,24,25]. The conventional solutions for the treatment of whey include the production of dehydrated whey products such as whey powder (WP), whey protein concentrates (WPC), whey protein isolates (WPI) and powdered lactose [21].…”