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Treatment of Turkey Processing Wastewater with Sand and Sand-Textile Bioreactors

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Eleventh Individual and Small Community Sewage Systems Conference Proceedings, 20-24 October 2007, Warwick, Rhode Island  701P1107cd.(doi:10.13031/2013.23997)
Authors:   Rashmi S Gaur, Karen M Mancl, Olli H Tuovinen
Keywords:   Fixed-media, sand bioreactor, sand-textile bioreactor, turkey processing wastewater

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of treating turkey processing wastewater using fixed film column bioreactors in bench-scale experiments. The columns contained either sand layers or a combination of sand and textile layers. The sand column comprised a layer of fine sand (18 in. deep) at the bottom, coarse sand (6 in.) in the middle, and pea gravel (6 in.) on the top. The pea gravel cap and coarse sand layer was replaced by a 12-in. layer of synthetic textile for the other column design. The bioreactors were inoculated and operated at 222 C to establish microbial biofilm population. The bioreactors received turkey processing wastewater and changes in the COD and BOD5 over time were monitored. Wastewater samples initially contained 1,010-2,360 mg COD/L and 463-1,250 mg BOD5/L and were applied to the bioreactors at 1.5 gallons/ft2/day. The bioreactors reached >95% and >99% removal of COD and BOD5, respectively, within one month of operation. The stable performance data showed that biofilm microorganisms in the bioreactors maintained their activity for at least over ten months of operation. There was no evidence for clogging of the bioreactors during this study.

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