DESALINATION

ELSEVIER Desalination 162 (2004) 85-91

Biological treatment of meat industry wastewater

Ewa Sroka a, Wtadyslaw Kamfliski b, Jolanta Bohdziewicz a*
alnstitute of Water and WastewaterEngineering, Silesian University of Technology,
ul. Konarskiego 18, 44-100 Gtiwiee, Poland
Tel. +48 (32) 237-1698; Fax +48 (32) 237-1047; email:jolaboh@zeus.polsl.gliwice.pl
bFaculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Lodz,
uI. Wolezanska 215, 90-924 Lodz, Poland

Received 17 July 2003; accepted 11 August 2003

Abstract
The work aimed to determine the effectiveness of the treatment of wastewater generated by the meat industry in
a hybrid system combining biological methods of activated sludge (in an SBR reactor) and reverse osmosis. The tests
carried out on the wastewater from the meat processing plant Uni-Lang in Wrzosowa showed that the biological
treatment resulted in sufficientremoval of contaminants from the wastewater, which consequently could be discharged
into receiving water. In order to make it possible for the wastewater to be reused in the production cycle, it was
additionallytreated with reverse osmosis. The research was described mathematically by the program MATLAB using
artificial neural networks. The program enables a prediction of the results for the treatment ofwastewater over a range
of tested values.

Keywords: Activated sludge; Reverse osmosis; Neutral networks; MATLAB; Meat industry wastewater

1. Introduction and chemical oxygen demand, high fat content

Meat processing plants use approximately
62 Mm3/y of water. Only a small amount of this
quantity is a component of the final product; the
remaining part is wastewater of high biological
*Corresponding author.
and high concentrations of dry residue, sedi-
mentary and total suspended matter as well as
nitrogen and chlorides. Since the wastewater
contains substantial amounts of proteins, it
putrefies easily and gives off nasty smells. It may
also contain disease microorganisms, eggs of
ascaris and intestinal parasites.

Presented at the PERMEA 2003, Membrane Science and Technology Conference of Visegrad Countries (Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), September 7-11, 2003, Tatranskd Matliare, Slovakia.
0011-9164/04/$- See front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
pII: S0011-9164(04)00030-X
86 E, Sroka et al. / Desalination 162 (2004) 85-91

The contaminant loading o f the wastewater
discharged from meat processing plants varies
seasonally, daily or even on a shift basis. In order
to reduce wastewater contamination, the pro-
duction cycles o f the meat processing plants
which are run properly deal with the separation
and utilization o f solid waste [1].
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
The wastewater was sampled from the
Uni-Lang meat processing plant in Wrzosowa
(southern Poland) whose activity covers the
slaughter and processing o f pigs. It was charac-
terized by considerable pollutant load, substantial
amounts o f suspended matter and high con-
centrations o f total nitrogen and phosphorus. The
values of the basic and eutrophic pollution
indexes ranged widely during the whole pro-
duction cycle. The wastewater was red and brown
in colour, smelled nasty and tended to foam and
putrefy. The characteristics o f the raw wastewater
are presented in Table 1.
2. 2. Apparatus
Treatment o f the wastewater was carried out
biologically applying the activated sludge method
in a 40 drn 3 chamber. The chamber was equipped
with two aeration pumps: Maxima R manu-
factured by Elite, whose average capacity was
420 dm3air/h; and an RZR 2020 stirrer manu-
factured by Heidolph, with an adjustable rotation
velocity ranging from 40 to 2000 rpm.
Reverse osmosis (RO) was conducted in a
high-pressure apparatus equipped with a plate and
frame module produced by Osmonics, with an
active membrane area o f 155 cm 2. The system
operated in the crossflow mode.
2. 3. Methods
The research consisted o f the following two
basic phases o f wastewater treatment: biological
treatment in an SBR and post-treatment applying
RO. The activated sludge used during the
biological treatment was taken from the bio-
logical wastewater treatment plant of the Uni-
Lang meat processing plant in Wrzosowa, which
ensured that the bacterial microflora had already
been adapted to the treatment o f this type o f
wastewater.
The tests were carried out at a constant dry
weight o f 5 g/din 3 in the chamber, aeration inten-
sity 840 dm 3 air/h, residence time o f 12 h, and
tSt, + ta o f 0.3 (t,, stirring time; t~, aeration time).

Table I
Pollution indexes of raw wastewater which, after the treatment, can be returned to the natural receiving waters

Pollution indexes Concentration of pollution Load, kg/d Permissible

in raw wastewater, mg/dm3 (mean value) standards,mg/dm3
Range Mean value
COD 2780-6720 4584 309.2 150
BOD5 1200-3000 2100 126.8 30
Total nitrogen 49-287 198 13 30
Total phosphorus 15-70 32 2.1 5a
Total suspension 112-1743 396 26.1 50
Detergents 7-21 11.3 0.75 5

~For a treatment plant of wastewater flow below 2000 m3/d.

 E. Sroka et al. / Desalination 162 (2004) 85-91
These parameters were selected on the basis of
previous research [2].
An attempt was also made to determine the
most favourable loading of activated sludge for
the wastewater tested. The measurements covered
the range of 0.05-0.75 COD/ga~~ x d.
Subsequently, with the help of the MATLAB
program and neural networks, we developed a
mathematical model which enabled us to find a
correlation between the loading of activated
sludge in SBR and final degree of removal of
contaminants from wastewater. The program
calculated specific parameters: COD, total nitro-
gen, and phosphorus on the basis of a given
activated sludge loading (across the range of
tested values).
In the last phase of the investigations, the
wastewater treated biologically under optimum
operating parameters of the activated sludge was
additionally treated with RO, applying a flat com-
posite DS3SC 1206366 membrane (Osmonics).
The membrane process was conducted at a
pressure of 2.0 MPa and linear flow velocity of
2.0 m/s.
The obtained results showed that the purified
wastewater could be discharged into receiving
water because it met the requirements of the
Regulations of the Ministry of Environmental
Protection, Natural Resources and Forestry, dated
5 November 1991, and none of the pollution
indexes exceeded the permissible standards. The
combination of activated sludge in the SBR
bioreactor and RO enabled a reuse of the
wastewater in the production cycle.
2. 4. Analytical procedures
COD, concentrations of phosphorus, and total
ammonium and nitrate nitrogen were determined
using an SQ18 photometer (Merck) [3], whereas
BOD5 was assayed using OxiTOP measuring
cylinders produced by WTW [4]. The dry matter
of the sludge was determined by means of the
gravimetric method [5].
87
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Biological treatment o f wastewater
The biological treamaent of wastewater from
the meat industry aimed at decomposing organic
matter and removing biogenic compounds, i.e.,
nitrogen and phosphorus. An increase in the
loading of activated sludge in the bioreactor
chamber brought about a decrease in contami-
nant removal. COD depended on the changes in
activated sludge loading over the range of tested
values (0.05 gCOD/gdwtXd + 0.75 gCOD/gawtXd).
Maximum COD removal was reached at the
sludge loading of 0.05 gCOD/gdwtx d, and the
raw wastewater had a value of 57.2 gO2/m3. The
lowest COD removal of 90.2% was achieved for
the sludge loading of 0.75 gCOD/ga,~ x d. Its
value for purified wastewater was 509.6 gO2./m3.
It was also found that BOD 5 was not
dependent on sludge loading. The removal per-
eentage remained constant for all applied
activated sludge loadings and ranged from 99.1%
to 99.6%.
The research showed a strong dependence of
biogenic compound removal in the purified
wastewater on activated sludge loading. For total
nitrogen, it reached the highest value of 98.2%
for the activated sludge loading of 0.15 gCOD/
g ~ wt.siu~exd . Whereas its concentration in the
raw wastewater was 530 gN~t/m3, in the purified
wastewater it decreased to a leve1of 9.5 g Ntot/m 3.
The lowest removal of total nitrogen was 82.1%
(raw- wastewater 236 g Ntot/m3; purified waste-
water 42.2 g N~t/m 3) for the loading of 0.75 g
COD/g ~y~. ~l~x d.
The results for phosphorus removal showed
that it depended mainly on the sludge loading.
The highest removal of this biogene was achieved
by applying an activated sludge loading of 0.15
gCOD/g~y wt. ~u~x d. It amounted to 87.3%
(purified wastewater 4.8 gP/m3), while the lowest
degree of removal was obtained for a loading of
0.55 gCOD/gd~. ~ludg~xd, which was 59.4%. It
is the equivalent of phosphorus removal
88 E. Sroka et al. / Desalination 162 (2004) 85-91
Table 2
Effectiveness of wastewater treatment applying the activated sludge method under the most favourable operating con-
ditions (activated sludge loading: 0.15 gCOD/g ~.,luago x d, aeration intensity: 840 dm3 air/h, residence time in the bio-
reactor: 12 h, ratio t,/t~ + t~: 0.3)
Pollution indexes Raw wastewater, Retention,
mg/dm3 R, %
COD 5300 98.1
BOD 5 2900 99.6
Total nitrogen 557 98.2
Total phosphorus 37.8 87.3
Ammonium 2.0 95.0
in the purified wastewater to the level of
20.9 gP/m 3.
In further tests, the activated sludge loading o f
0.15 gCOD/g ~wt sludgeX d, regarded as the most
favourable, was used and produced the best
results in wastewater treatment. Table 2 shows
the results obtained in the investigations.
An analysis o f the obtained results showed
that the purified wastewater could be discharged
into receiving water because it met the require-
ments o f the Regulations of the Ministry o f
Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and
Forestry, dated 5 November 1991, and none o f
the pollution indexes exceeded the permissible
standards.
There are multitudes of ways to describe
research mathematically. We decided to choose
artificial neural networks (ANNs) for their
universality.
ANNs originated from an interdisciplinary
synthesis o f the traditional sciences of biology,
physics and mathematics. Their dynamic devel-
opment took place only recently as a result of
computational capabilities in computer science
and electronics.
The basic characteristic which distinguishes
ANNs from the programs using algorithmic data
processing is the ability to draw generalizations
from new data, unknown before, i.e., not intro-
duced during learning. It can be also expressed as
Wastewater after activated Permissible
sludge bioreactor, rag/din3 standards, mg/dm3
102 150
10 15
9.5 30
4.8 5
0.1 6
EJ
Output:
layer [
Fig. 1. Schematic of neural networks.
the ability of ANNs to approximate the values of
the function of multiple variables. Another
description is also possible, e.g., expert systems
usually require a complete knowledge of the
problems they are going to solve, whereas ANNs
require a single learning process and are tolerant
of imperfect data, distortions or even gaps in data
sets. This makes it possible to use ANNs to solve
problems when other methods fail.
In this work, three neural networks were used,
each of them having input, hidden and output
layers (Fig. 1). The sludge loading was the input
layer, whereas COD, total nitrogen and phos-
phorus in the purified wastewater were the output
layer.
The number of hidden neurons, being grad-
ually increased, was determined through compu-
tation. Two hidden neurons appeared to be
sufficient for the network to solve a given
 E. Sroka et al. / Desalination 162 (2004) 85-91 89

99 ' I 1 I

Table 3
98
Initial data file ~2
97
-- ej~
Sludge loading, COD Total Total
gCOD/ removal, phosphorous nitrogen
~2
gaw~a~oxd % removal, % removal, % O
o
° 6~
0.05 98.9 87.8 95.5 62
0.10 98.4 85.0 94.1
0.15 98.1 87.3 98.2 6,4 8,6 '8.7 6,6
0.20 98.2 82.4 89.7 Sludge loading [gCOD/dT:S.*d]

0.25 98.1 69.6 90.4 Fig. 2. Correlation between sludge loading and COD
0.30 97.7 66.8 87.5 removal, x: measurement points, o: points learnt by the
0.35 97.3 65.0 88.5 network {[A'-datal C,2)]'* [A'-datal C,2)1 }/15; error mean
0.40 97.4 62.9 87,6 square for COD = 0.0460.
0.45 95,7 64.1 87.4
0.50 94,3 62.9 87,2
-t ','.> ~>
0.55 94.1 59.4 86.4 8~ x

0.60 92.5 62.3 84.8 E

0.65 91.8 62.0 84.4 E 75
0.70 90.9 61.4 84.3
za
0.75 90.2 59.9 82.1

problem. This number enabled the network,

which is connected with a small amount of
weights, to make generalizations. The network
was trained on the basis of initial data (Table 3).
Learning from a randomly selected system of
weights was repeated 20 times memorizing the
best result in terms of error mean square. The
following training parameters were applied:
8;7
Sludge loading[gCOD/gT.&*d]
Fig. 3. Correlation between sludge loading and phos-
phorus removal, x: measurement points, o: points learnt
by the network {[A'-datal (:,3)]'* [A'-datal(:,3)] }/15; error
mean square for phosphorus = 1.0667.
180

maximum number of epochs in the learning

process, 4000; permissible error SSE, 0.01;
learning coefficient, 0.005. "~ ~4

The program applied enabled a determination E 52

of correlation between the loading of raw ¢) <> 6,

wastewater, treated in SBR, and final removal of
Z
contaminants from it. Each index had an error
8A
mean square calculated. 82
8,7
Figs. 2-4 show a correlation between sludge Sludge loading NCOD/gT.S.*d]
loading and removal of particular contaminants
Fig. 4. Correlation between sludge loading and total
(COD, total phosphorus and nitrogen). nitrogen removal, x: measurement points, o: points learnt
The developed artificial neural network by the network. {[A'-datalC,4)]'*[A'-datalC,4)]}/15;
enables a prediction of wastewater purification error mean square for total nitrogen = 0.9517.
90 E. Sroka et al. / Desalination 162 (2004) 85-91

over the range of tested values. Entering a Table 4

specific sludge loading results in a prediction of Effectiveness of wastewater treatment through RO after
COD, total nitrogen and phosphorus removal. it pretreatment using the biological method
Thus, it is possible to predict the extent of
Pollution Wastewater after Wastewater after
wastewater purification.
indices activated sludge RO process
bioreactor

3.2. Additional treatment ofwastewater by means Cone., Conc., Retention,

of pressure driven membrane operations rag/din 3 rag/din 3 %

As the results of the investigations showed, COD 76 10.8 85.8

wastewater from the meat industry can be puri- BOD 5 10 5.0 50.0
fied only to the extent which enables the waste- Total 3.6 0.09 97.5
phosphorus
water to be discharged into receiving water. Since
Total nitrogen 13 1.3 90.0
the meat industry uses huge quantities of water,
as mentioned herein, and thus produces highly
loaded wastewater, an attempt to treat it The degrees of contaminant removal obtained
additionally so that it could be reused in the during RO were as follows: phosphorus was
production cycle was made. In our work, we removed to a value below 0.1 gP/m 3, the con-
determined a correlation between the volume centration of total nitrogen was 1.0 gNog/m ~,
permeate flux and its recovery (Fig. 5). COD and BOD s were relatively low - - 10 g
It was found that during RO, the volume 02/m 3 and 5 gO2/m 3, respectively. It was con-
permeate flux depended on its recovery to a small cluded that the purified wastewater could be then
extent. At a permeate recovery of 20%, it reused in the production cycle of a plant.
decreased to 1.67<10-6 m3/m2 x s, i.e., by a mere
10.6%.
The effectiveness of additional treatment of 4. Conclusions
wastewater during RO after it was treated bio-
logically applying the activated sludge method is Wastewater from the meat industry is very
given in Table 4. difficult to purify due to its specific charac-
teristics; irregular scatter; and considerable
amounts &organic, mineral and biogenic matter.
% This type of wastewater can be treated bio-
× 2.5 logically by means of activated sludge applying
2 ......................................................................................................................................... a low sludge loading of 0.15 COD/g ~y~. ~lu~exd,
eo ~j~ aeration intensity of 840 dm 3 air/h, constant
sludge concentration in the chamber of 5 g/dm 3,
IIIwater i residence time ofwastewater in the bioreactor of
0.5 .................................................................................... A R O "cross-flow" ' ] 12 h and a ratio of the stirring time to the sum of
>.
0 /
the stirring and aeration times of 0.3. The
0 5 10 t5 20
Permeaterecovery,degree[%] wastewater thus treated meets the requirements of
the Regulations of the Ministry of Environ-
Fig. 5. Dependence of volume permeate flux on its mental Protection, Natural Resources and
recovery for reverse osmosis of wastewater after Forestry, dated 5 November 1991, and can be
traditional treatment. discharged into receiving water.
 E. Sroka et aL / Desalination 162 (2004) 85-91
Wastewater from the meat industry can also be
satisfactorily treated so that it can be reused in the
production cycle o f a plant. In order to achieve
this degree o f wastewater purification, a hybrid
process combining the biological method of
activated sludge and RO should be used.
References
[1] B. Koziorowski and J. Kucharski, Industrial waste-
water, WNT, Warsaw 1980.
91
[2] J. Bohdziewicz, E. Sroka and E. Lobos, Application
of the system which combines coagulation, activated
sludge and reverse osmosis to the treatment of the
wastewater produced by the meat industry, Desali-
natior% 144 (2002) 393-398.
[3] User's Manual, Photometer SQ 118, Merck.
[4] User's Manual, Determination ofBZT using respiro-
metric method, Oxi Top, WTW.
[5] W. Hermanowicz, ed., Physicochemical Testing of
Water and Sewage, Arkady, Warsaw, 1998.