Treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater using a static granular bed reactor (SGBR) coupled with ultrafiltration (UF) membrane system

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 ultra-filtration (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 9,695 mg/L, average biological oxygen demand of 2,375 mg/L and average fats, oil and grease (FOG) of 554 mg/L. The SGBR anaerobic reactor was operated for 9 weeks at different hydraulic retention times, (HRTs), i.e. 55 and 40 hrs, with an average organic loading rate (OLR) of 1.01 and 3.14 g 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.