Amenability of poultry abattoir wastewater for sequential anaerobic-aerobic biological treatment processes

Abstract

The scarcity of potable water availability worldwide is enhancing the search for innovative water resources to mitigate the effects of this problem. Reuse of wastewater is one of the resolutions that has a promising alternative to reduce the impact of water shortening. The wastewater from poultry slaughterhouses in western Malaysia was characterized in this study in order to check its suitability for sequential anaerobic-aerobic biological treatment and to produce secure water for environmental disposal. Three poultry slaughterhouses were selected according to their maximum capacity of 30000, 45000, and 12500 birds per day for Ayam Kempas, Ayamas, and PPNJ plants, respectively. To reduce contamination in the wastewater generated, these plants separate blood from wastewater. The parameters BOD5 (range 271-1033 mg/L), TDS (range 275-1458 mg/L), TSS (range 237-1017 mg/L), TVSS (range 234-1006 mg/L), alkalinity (range 47-318 mg/L as CaCO3), FOG (range 159-550 mg/L), TCOD (range 940-3402 mg/L), TN-N (range 42-205 mg/L), and PO4-3-P (range 17-64 mg/L) were measured in the laboratory. The characteristics of wastewater in these plants were fluctuating. However, the organic matter concentrations among these three selected plants were adopted to order them. Ayamas's wastewater occupies the first rank in the contamination level, followed by Ayam Kempas s and PPNJ s wastewater, respectively. The low strength of PPNJ wastewater is due to the lower production capacity of the slaughterhouse and the high usage of freshwater per bird slaughtered (24 L/bird) compared to the other two slaughterhouse plants.