Poultry wastewater treatment.

Poultry processing plants, as in many other food processing activities typically are high water
users. This water from the process will be laden with, viscera, urea, partially digested chicken
feed, bile products, feet scales, fats, proteins and carbohydrates from meat, fat, blood, skin
and feathers. The water is also polluted with a fair amount of grit and other inorganic matter.
The following sections show how such effluent from a poultry processing plant is treated to
meet the minimum requirements for effluent disposal into water bodies or the sewers.

Block dia.

Chemical
Raw wastewater Conc. NaOH hydrolysis
Flocculants
Compressed air
HCl
Dissolved
Flow equalisation
Air
Screening and flocculent
Floatation
dosing.
(DAF)

Screened feathers and viscera

Sludge

RAS

Clarifier Aeration Anaerobic

basin lagoon

Waste sludge
Air
Treated effluent

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 NaOH HCl dosing
Plant feather dosing tank
trench tank

Screen 1 Scum

Steam
Plant viscera
trench Condensate
Hydrolysis
Screen 2
Pump
Flocculants Scum rack
(Aluminium Anaerobic lagoon
Overflow
sulphate/ ferric
chloride)

Compressed air
Air vent
Clear-well
Chemical mix tank
Biogas to
boiler
DAF Unit house
Air tank
Pump
Compressor

Air
Sludge to drying and
disposal
Air saturated clear water

Mixed liquor overlfow

Aeration tank

Clarified water to

Return activated sludge

the sewers or re-use
in the plant (after Clarifier
chlorination)

Air

Sludge Blower
Screw pump
Waste activated sludge
Key
NaOH – Sodium hydroxide
DAF – Dissolved air floatation
Pump

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Process description.
Screening.
Wastewater typically exits the processing area via two lines or flumes (one line for
viscera/meat, one line for feathers) and enters the offal area. These lines discharge onto either
the feather screens or the viscera screens. These screens remove most of the larger sized
solids from the waste stream. The removed solids are conveyed to offal trucks (or directly to
on-site rendering). These trucks carry the feathers and meat to an animal feed by-products
plant where they are recycled into feather meal, poultry meal, pet food, and animal fat.

Screened wastewater streams from both the feather side and the offal side are combined and
flown across a secondary screen with a tighter opening - typically 0.020 inch to 0.040 inch –
which removes additional solids for by product recovery.

Chemical treatment.
The secondary screened wastewater is directed to a flow equalization basin (FEB) or wet
well. This is provided to allow adequate hydraulic surge protection so that the subsequent
treatment unit, Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF), can occur on a consistent basis. Coagulants
are added to the FEB in preparation of the sedimentation stage. Ferric chloride or aluminium
sulphate (Alum) is added to promote the coagulation of particles before they enter the
floatation tank where they settle and are removed as sludge. Much of the material that is
coagulated is blood, protein and lipids.

Floatation
A dissolve air floatation (DAF) pressurized recycle system is used whereby a portion of the
DAF effluent is pressurized by a pump to approximately 70 psig, and then introduced into a
pressure tank. Air is injected from an air compressor into the pressure tank. At this higher
pressure, water has the capacity to dissolve even greater quantities of air than in a full flow
pressurization system; i.e., the recycle stream is supersaturated with air. Because of the
greater air dissolving capabilities, a reduced quantity of water needs to be pressurised.
Typically 25-50% of plant flow is recycled in this manner. When this pressurized recycle is
introduced into the DAF tank, this supersaturated air comes out of solution, causing the
flotation effect. Fats, oils, grease, proteins and some minute particulate solids which are
hydrophobic are trapped by the air bubbles rising from the sparger which results in their
removal as scum which floats at the top of the DAF unit. This scum is removed from the

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system by a scrapper and is held temporarily in a sump before it is pumped to a hydrolysis
unit. Blood coagulates into large globules which settle together with other settleable solids at
the bottom of the tank. The settled sludge is removed and press filtered before it is discharges
as solid waste or used for other purposes.

Hydrolysis.
Hydrolysis is an alternative process route which can be taken to increase the substrate
concentration for the anaerobic process by breaking down complex organic molecules into
simple biodegradable organic materials. For example, proteins are broken down into amino
acids which are easily broken down to hydrogen and nitrogen under anaerobic conditions.
Concentrated sodium hydroxide is used as the catalyst in the hydrolysis process with
temperatures ranging from 90 to 97 °C. Another alternative is to centrifuge the scum to
concentrate the proteins and lipids for use for other purposes.

Anaerobic digestion.
The anaerobic lagoon allows further reduction of pollutants in the waste stream through
bacterial and chemical reactions occurring in the lagoon. The anaerobic lagoon promotes an
environment without oxygen in which pollutants are broken down in three steps. The first
step is called hydrolysis and consists of the breakdown of the remainder of complex protein
and fat molecules that would have escaped the floatation process, into smaller, simpler fatty
and amino acids and mono saccharides. The second step is performed by a group of bacteria
called acidogens. They transform the end products of the first step into simple organic acids
such as acetic acid. The third step is performed by a group of bacteria called methanogens
and consists of the conversion of these organic acids to methane gas and carbon dioxide.
Ammonia and hydrogen sulphide are produced as by products of the anaerobic process. The
lagoon will reduce BOD and TSS levels.

Aerobic digestion.
The aeration basin provides an ecosystem with free elemental oxygen (O2) and chemically
bound oxygen (NO2, NO3). Blowers or aerators are utilized to supply oxygen (O 2) to the
basin. This oxidizes BOD to carbon dioxide, water and additional cellular mass. In addition,
if the system is designed appropriately, biomass can convert ammonia nitrogen (NH 4-N) to
nitrate in a process called nitrification. Nitrate can also be removed by turning off the blowers
or aerators enabling the biomass to utilize oxygen bound up in nitrate.

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Clarification.
Discharge from the aeration basin flows to the clarifier. The purpose of the clarifier is to
produce a clear water effluent via separation from the bacterial cells. Consequently, the
clarifier is a quiescent tank where the heavier bacterial cells settle and the clear water effluent
overflows the weirs. Most of the bacterial cells that settle are returned back to the aeration
basin. These returned bacterial cells, referred to as Returned Activated Sludge (or RAS),
provide sufficient bacteria back to the process to continue virtually complete BOD and TKN
removal, if desired. To keep the process in balance (i.e., to prevent an oversupply of bacteria
and prevent a build up of solids), a portion of the settled cellular mass in the clarifier is
removed from the system. This process is called wasting and it allows the system to stay in
balance without an unhealthy build-up of bacterial solids. The cells wasted are normally
thickened and then land applied as a soil amendment.

If the clarified effluent is required to be discharged into a water body, disinfection is don by
dosing the Clearwater stream with chlorine. The chlorine kills all bacteria in the water.
Sulphur dioxide is also added after chlorination to remove residual chlorine before discharge
into a water body.

Bibliography
1. U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, Wastewater Treatment Manual for Poultry
Processing Facilities.
2. Poultry Processing Wastewater Treatment System Process Description.
http://www.hydroflotech.com/Typical%20Applications/Poultry%20Wastewater
%20Tretment%20System/Poultry%20Wastewater%20Treatment%20System.pdf
3. Frank Woodard, (2001), Industrial Waste Treatment Handbook, Butterworth–
Heinemann.
4. Unknown, Examples of Food Processing Wastewater Treatment.

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