1164

ARTICLE
Evaluation of a chemical dissolved air flotation system for the
treatment of restaurant dishwasher effluent
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY on 12/31/14

Wayne Chung and Stephanie Young

Abstract: Restaurant dishwashers consume a large quantity of fresh water and produce significant amounts of high strength oily
wastewater which may cause serious problems when discharged into the sewer. An analysis of restaurant dishwasher effluent
(RDE) from a busy upscale restaurant identified high levels of oil and grease, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD), alkalinity, pH, and chlorine, but low levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. In this study, RDE was treated
using an internationally patented chemical dissolved air flotation (chemical DAF) system. The chemical DAF system was
designed so that coagulation, flocculation, and flotation processes could be carried out within the same reactor. The treatment
system is therefore small and compact and suitable for use in restaurants where space is limited. The treatment performance of
the chemical DAF was evaluated by determining optimal process conditions, contaminant removal efficiencies, and residual
contaminant concentrations. It was found that removal efficiencies of 98.90%, 93.16%, 98.68%, 90.04%, and 88.20% could be
achieved under optimal process conditions for turbidity, oil, TSS, BOD5, and COD, respectively. Total coliform and E. coli were not
detected in either the raw dishwasher effluent or the treated dishwasher effluent due to the use of sodium hypochlorite as a
dishwashing sanitizer. Water quality of the treated effluent met the criteria put forth in the Canadian Guidelines for Domestic
Reclaimed Water for Use in Toilet and Urinal Flushing, with the exception of BOD5. Present findings suggest that chemical DAF is a
promising treatment process for the removal of contaminants from restaurant dishwasher effluent.

Key words: dissolved air flotation, DAF, restaurant, dishwasher, oil, grease, coagulation, flocculation.
For personal use only.

Résumé : Les lave-vaisselle des restaurants consomment de grandes quantités d’eau fraîche et produisent des quantités impor-
tantes d’eaux usées huileuses de grande concentration, qui pourraient causer de sérieux problèmes s’ils sont déchargés dans les
égouts. Une analyse de l’effluent des lave-vaisselle d’un restaurant haut de gamme très achalandé a permis d’identifier des
niveaux élevés d’huile et de graisse, de demande chimique en oxygène (DCO), de la demande biochimique d’oxygène (DBO),
d’alcalinité, de pH et de chlore, mais de faibles niveaux d’azote et de phosphore. Dans la présente étude, les effluents de
lave-vaisselle de restaurant ont été traités en utilisant un système international breveté de flottation chimique à l’air dissous
(DAF chimique). Le système DAF chimique a été conçu afin d’effectuer la coagulation, la floculation et la flottation dans un même
réacteur. Le système de traitement est donc petit et compact pour être utilisé dans les restaurants où l’espace est limité. Le
rendement du traitement du système DAF chimique a été évalué en déterminant les conditions optimales du processus, les
efficacités d’élimination des contaminants et les concentrations en contaminant résiduelles. Il a été constaté que des efficacités
d’élimination de 98,90%, de 93,16%, de 98,68%, de 90,04% et de 88,20% pouvaient être atteintes respectivement pour la turbidité,
l’huile, les solides totaux en suspension, la DBO5 et la DCO sous des conditions optimales. Les bactéries coliformes et les E. coli
n’ont pas été détectés ni dans l’effluent brut de lave-vaisselle ni dans l’effluent traité de lave-vaisselle grâce à l’utilisation
d’hypochlorite de sodium comme désinfectant. La qualité de l’eau de l’effluent traité rencontre les critères formulés dans les
Recommandations canadiennes sur les eaux domestiques recyclées destinées à alimenter les chasses d’eau des toilettes et des
urinoirs, à l’exception de la DBO5. Les présentes conclusions suggèrent que le système DAF chimique soit un processus de
traitement prometteur pour l’élimination des contaminants de l’effluent de lave-vaisselle des restaurants. [Traduit par la Rédaction]

Mots-clés : flottation à l’air dissous, DAF, restaurant, lave-vaisselle, huile, graisse, coagulation, flocculation.

1. Introduction sewer line cleaning, or sewage backups in private and public

Food-service establishments are known to be major consumers
of water and are consequently major producers of wastewater.
Restaurant wastewater, discharged from dishwashers and kitchen
sinks, is a major stress on municipal sewage collection systems
and wastewater treatment plants due to the presence of high
concentrations of oil and grease (OG), organic compounds, and
suspended solids (BCDHE 1997; Blount 2003). High concentrations
of OG can cause serious problems when discharged into the sewer
since the cooler temperature causes some of the OG to solidify on
the interior of the pipes. With time, an accumulation of grime can
lead to clogged sewer lines which in turn may cause sewage spills,
manhole overflows, premature sewer line replacement, frequent
buildings. The problems continue when large quantities of OG
enter the municipal treatment plant. The OG floats as a layer on
top of the water, sticks onto pipes and walls, blocks strainers and
filters, and thus interferes with the treatment unit operations
(Stoll and Gupta 1997).
Restaurant dishwashers emulsify OG both mechanically and
chemically through the use of high temperatures and detergents.
Due to its small mean droplet size (less than 20 microns) and
chemical stability, colloidal suspensions of emulsified OG are very
difficult to separate from wastewater (Han 2000; Auflem et al.
2001; Chen and He 2003). A common way to treat wastewater
containing emulsified OG suspensions is by a physicochemical

Received 9 August 2012. Accepted 20 July 2013.

W. Chung and S. Young. Environmental Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada.
Corresponding author: Stephanie Young (e-mail: stephanie.young@uregina.ca).

Can. J. Civ. Eng. 40: 1164–1172 (2013) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2012-0357 Published at www.nrcresearchpress.com/cjce on 23 July 2013.
 Chung and Young
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the bench-scale chemical DAF system.
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treatment process. This process involves the use of chemical
reagents to destabilize emulsified contaminants and to in-
crease the size of the emulsified particles prior to their physical
separation from the liquid phase. An example of this type of
For personal use only.
process is coagulation and flocculation followed by dissolved air
flotation (chemical DAF). Typically, sedimentation would follow
the coagulation–flocculation processes; however, flotation is an
effective alternative in the presence of extremely fine particles or
globules, such as oil droplets, which do not possess a significant
settling rate (Zouboulis and Avranas 2000). During the flotation
process, microscopic oil droplets are converted into microscopic
air and oil bubbles that have a lower density than oil micelles and
micro-emulsions (Hanafy and Nabih 2007). The resultant air and
oil bubbles, which rise to the surface, are separated much more
quickly than the emulsion droplets. In addition, as identified by
Kawamura (2000), DAF is an effective alternative to sedimentation
because it offers: (1) a shorter flocculation period, (2) a higher
hydraulic surface loading rate, (3) a higher solids concentration of
produced sludge, and (4) a smaller footprint. Furthermore, flota-
tion does not require large flocs and a reduction in chemical dos-
age can therefore be achieved (Edzwald et al. 1992).
Dissolved air flotation systems have been applied to a variety of
water and wastewater treatment processes since the early 1900s.
However, despite its many uses, DAF has been most successfully
applied to the removal of OG from wastewater streams (Britz et al.
2006). Studies show significant improvements in suspended solids
and OG removals when chemical pretreatment is used prior to
DAF (de Nardi et al. 2008). Therefore, coagulation and flocculation
are important pretreatment processes for DAF and an essential
requirement for efficient flotation (Gregory and Zabel 1990).
Chemical DAF is widely used in much of the research conducted
in the treatment of oily wastewater. Hanafy and Nabih (2007)
studied the effects of soap on oil separation using chemical DAF.
Due to the emulsifying effect of soap, the results showed a de-
crease in oil separation and an increase in alum dosage when soap
was added to the wastewater. Al-Shamrani et al. (2002) studied
various chemical pretreatment parameters for DAF and achieved
oil removals of up to 99.3% and 99.94% for alum and ferric sulfate,
respectively. In other work, El-Gohary et al. (2010) performed a
comparative study between chemical coagulation–precipitation
versus chemical DAF. While the results are comparable, a cost
evaluation showed chemical DAF to be much more economical
and required a significantly smaller footprint. Chemical DAF is
1165
widely used in the food processing industries for the removal of
OG. Its implementations can be found in bakery, seafood, meat,
and dairy processing wastewaters (Wang et al. 2006). Many chem-
ical DAF processes require the use of more than one reactor,
unlike the chemical DAF process used in this study, where coag-
ulation, flocculation, and flotation were carried out within the
same reactor.
There is currently very little published research on the treat-
ment of restaurant wastewater, and to the authors' knowledge,
none on the treatment of restaurant dishwasher effluent (RDE).
Apart from the work of Chan (2010), there is no published re-
search on the use of DAF in restaurants, even though it has been
widely utilized in the treatment of food processing wastewaters
(Britz et al. 2006). In this research, the performance of a chemical
DAF system on the treatment of RDE was evaluated by determin-
ing the characteristics of raw and treated dishwasher effluents,
and by evaluating the removal efficiencies of OG and other con-
taminants.
2. Materials and methods
Restaurant dishwasher effluent was treated in this study using
an internationally patented (Young and Munoz 2012) chemical
DAF system. A schematic diagram of the batch chemical DAF sys-
tem is presented in Fig. 1. The chemical DAF system was designed
so that the processes of coagulation, flocculation, and flotation
could be carried out within the same DAF reactor. The DAF reactor
was designed to be long and narrow, making the treatment sys-
tem small and compact, reducing the reactor's footprint. The
chemical DAF system is therefore suitable for use in restaurants
where space is limited.
The main components of the chemical DAF system include an
air compressor (DeWALT D55141 Heavy-Duty, 2 gal, 150 psi), a 3 L
pressure tank, an air pump (Whisper® 30-60), an air diffuser (Elite
A-984), a pressure gauge, and a 1.75 L flotation column. The air
compressor was used to pressurize the pressure tank. The pres-
sure tank provided a containment vessel for the compressed air
while it dissolved into the water. Different pressures were moni-
tored and measured by a pressure gauge. The air pump and air
diffuser facilitated mixing inside the flotation column. Air bub-
bles released from the air diffuser created mixing in the body of
liquid. By controlling the flow rate from the air pump, rapid mix-
ing for coagulation and slow mixing for flocculation could both be
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 1166
Table 1. Chemical products used by the dishwasher.
CAS (% by
Product name Ingredient Number weight)
Keystone Detergent Sodium hydroxide 1310-73-2 7 to 13
Keystone Low Temp. Alcohols, c10-16, 68002-97-1 3 to 7
Rinse Additive ethoxylated
Keystone Sanitizer Sodium hypochlorite 7681-52-9 7 to 13
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accomplished in the DAF reactor. The air diffuser was placed at
the bottom of the column to avoid the occurrence of dead zones
near the column base. Dead zones are areas where mixing does
not occur and where floc particles can accumulate. To ensure
microbubbles travel the entire length of the flotation column, the
pressurized air–water mixture was released from the bottom of
the flotation column through a flow control valve located on the
side. A recycle flow pressurization system was selected for the
chemical DAF process; however, it was not possible to achieve
recycling due to the limitations of the batch operation of the
chemical DAF system. For simulation purposes, the pressure tank
was pressurized with tap water rather than flotation column ef-
fluent.
In this research, alum (Al2(SO4)3·18H2O) was used as the primary
coagulant, and MAGNAFLOC® 1011 provided by Ciba (BASF), a high
molecular weight anionic polyacrylamide, was used as a floccu-
lant. Sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide were used for pH adjust-
ment. Coagulant and flocculant solutions were prepared daily
For personal use only.
before testing. Alum solution was prepared at a concentration of
10% (100 mg/mL), and MAGNAFLOC® 1011 was prepared at a con-
centration of 0.05% (0.5 mg/mL), as suggested by the manufac-
turer.
The collection of RDE was conducted at a local upscale western
restaurant. Samples of RDE were collected on different days of the
week and during different times of the day to ensure that the
variability in wastewater quality was represented in the tests.
According to the owner of the restaurant, on average, the dish-
washer runs 140 cycles per day and each cycle uses approximately
6 L of water. The dishwasher operated on two cycles, the wash
cycle and the final rinse cycle. During the wash cycle, detergent
was injected into the dishwasher. After the wash cycle, the dish-
washer discharged the wash water, which was collected as raw
RDE for this study. During the final rinse cycle, fresh water, low
temperature rinse additive, and sanitizer were injected into the
dishwasher, and the wash water was reused during the next wash
cycle. Information on the chemical products used by the dish-
washer is shown in Table 1. Due to the use of a detergent (sodium
hydroxide) and a sanitizer (sodium hypochlorite) in the dishwash-
ing process, the dishwasher effluent was very alkaline, as shown
in Table 2.
Oil concentrations were measured using a Horiba OCMA-310 oil
content analyzer (Horiba Instruments Inc., CA), which displayed
oil concentrations directly in mg/L on its display. The instrument
used a solvent extraction, non-dispersive infrared absorption
analysis method (infrared spectroscopy). Tetrachloroethylene
(ultra-resi analysed, J.T. Baker) was used as the oil extraction sol-
vent. Methods and instruments used during this analysis were
similar to those used by Srinivasan and Viraraghavan (2010).
3. Results and discussion
During the initial research stage, coagulation, flocculation, and
flotation parameters were evaluated to determine the optimal
conditions for the chemical DAF system. Turbidity and oil re-
moval were the criteria chosen to evaluate treatment efficiency.
The following sections will discuss how optimal conditions were
determined experimentally for operative pH, alum dose, and floc-
culant dose.
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 40, 2013
3.1. Effects of operative pH and alum dose on contaminant
removal efficiencies
Operative pH is the pH of the solution in the flotation column
after the addition of alum. To study the effects of operative pH and
alum dose on removal efficiencies, three different doses of alum
were evaluated at pH values between 4 and 8. Results presented in
Fig. 2 show that there exists an optimum range for operative pH
where coagulation is most effective. This was evident when the
operative pH was lowered from 7.79 to 5.54, at 200 mg/L alum. The
resulting turbidity removal efficiency (TRE) and oil removal effi-
ciency (ORE) increased sharply from 23.7% to 94.6% and 53.2% to
91.4%, respectively. As alum dose increased to 250 mg/L, it pro-
duced similar trends but with slightly improved TRE and ORE,
which were 96.2% and 91.4%, respectively, at an optimum opera-
tive pH of 5.63. At an alum dose of 300 mg/L, the optimum oper-
ative pH was observed at 5.85 and a TRE and ORE of 98.2% and
92.7% were observed, respectively. A review of the literature
showed that optimum operative pH values for alum in OG re-
moval are typically around 6 (Pinotti and Zaritzky 2001; Meyssami
and Kasaeian 2005), which is consistent with the values obtained
in this study.
A second set of test results are presented in Fig. 3. These tests
were performed to further evaluate the effects of coagulant dose
and operative pH on contaminant removal efficiencies. Results
show that at an alum dose of 300 mg/L, the optimum TRE and ORE
achieved were 99.43% and 95.42%, respectively. At an alum dose of
400 mg/L, the optimum TRE and ORE achieved were 99.40% and
95.65%, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that there were
no further improvements to TRE and ORE by increasing the alum
dose above 300 mg/L. The observation of no improvement at
higher alum doses is in agreement with Amuda and Alade (2006),
who demonstrated the existence of an optimum dose for a coag-
ulant, and where further addition of coagulant achieved no sig-
nificant improvement for removal efficiencies. An alum dose of
300 mg/L is comparable to values reported for the chemical DAF
treatment of oily industrial wastewaters, where optimum alum
dosages varied from 250 to 700 mg/L (Azbar and Yonar 2004;
El-Gohary et al. 2010).
The results indicate that operative pH has a greater effect on
clarification than alum dose, since changes in pH affect both TRE
and ORE significantly more than changes in alum dose. These
observations are in agreement with the findings of Al-Shamrani
et al. (2002).
3.2. Effects of operative pH and flocculant dose on
contaminant removal efficiencies
To study the effects of operative pH and flocculant dose on
contaminant removal efficiencies, flocculant doses of 0.5, 1.0, and
1.5 mg/L were tested at operative pH values ranging between 5 and
7. Figure 4 shows sharp increases in TRE and ORE for all three
flocculant dosages when operative pH was lowered to approxi-
mately 5.8. Restabilization due to the change of operative pH was
not observed between the pH range of 5 and 6. In addition, Fig. 4
also shows that changes in flocculant dose had only slight effects
on removal efficiencies. The highest TRE and ORE were observed
at a flocculent dose of 1.5 mg/L, which achieved 98.34% and 94.98%
removals, respectively, at operative pH = 5.63. In addition, no
flocculant restabilization due to flocculant overdose was evident
in Fig. 4. Therefore, a higher flocculent dose of 2 mg/L was tested
in this study.
A second set of test results are presented in Fig. 5. These tests
were performed at flocculant doses of 0, 1.5, and 2 mg/L to verify if
a further increase in flocculant dosage could improve removal
efficiencies and also to verify whether the use of flocculant could
be eliminated. The results verified that there were no further
improvements to removal efficiencies by increasing a flocculant
dose to 2 mg/L. In fact, TRE and ORE decreased with the increase in
flocculant dose from 1.5 to 2 mg/L at pH < 5.6, possibly caused by
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 Chung and Young 1167

Table 2. Comparison of characteristics among the RDE from the Beer Bros. Bakery & Cuisine, raw domestic wastewater and raw greywater.
# of Domestic
Parameter Units samples Average STDEV Min/Max wastewatera Greywaterb
pH 25 11.09 0.22 10.55/11.67 6.5 to 8.5 6.6 to 8.7
Turbidity NTU 27 261 111 91/502 N/A 22 to >200
TSS mg/L 20 216 122 43/506 100 to 500 45 to 330
Oil concentration mg/L 22 382 129 173/650 50 to 100 N/A
Alkalinity mg/L as CaCO3 11 625 140 412/860 50 to 200 N/A
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COD mg/L 6 1106 472 456/1588 260 to 900 N/A

BOD mg/L 6 308 105 168/458 100 to 500 90 to 290
Total nitrogen mg/L 7 3.84 1.57 1.63/5.74 N/A N/A
Total Kjeldahl nitrogen mg/L 7 2.03 1.24 0.635/2.842 20 to 80 2.1 to 31.5
Ammonia mg/L 7 0.483 0.211 0.16/0.765 10 to 30 <1.0 to 25.4
Nitrite mg/L 7 0.331 0.092 0.188/0.440 1 to 10 <0.1 to 0.8
Nitrate mg/L 7 1.48 0.51 0.839/2.05 0 N/A
Phosphorus mg/L 7 9.77 0.95 7.81/10.81 5 to 30 0.6 to 27.3
Total coliform CFU/100 mL 2 Not detected 107 to 1010 102 to 106
Escherichia coli CFU/100 mL 2 Not detected 106 to 108 10 to 105
Note: BOD, biochemical oxygen demand; COD, chemical oxygen demand; TSS, total suspended solids; NTU, nephelometric turbidity unit; CFU, colony-forming unit.
aAdapted from Health Canada (2010), Tchobanoglous et al. (2003), and UN Department of Technical Cooperation for Development (1985).

bAdapted from Health Canada (2010).

Fig. 2. The effect of operative pH on turbidity removal efficiency and oil removal efficiency at different alum doses: 200, 250, 300 mg/L.
For personal use only.

Fig. 3. The effect of operative pH on turbidity removal efficiency and oil removal efficiency at different alum doses: 300, 400 mg/L.

the restabilization of colloids due to flocculant overdose. The re-
stabilization might be attributed to charge reversal, or surface
saturation or sterical stabilization of polymer chain due to excess
addition of flocculent. The results shown in Fig. 5 also verified that
the combination of coagulant and flocculant is more effective
than coagulant alone, and that the use of flocculant is necessary
for the treatment of RDE. This is because bridging helped colloids
aggregate, which facilitated the flotation process.
3.3. Analysis of RDE
There is currently very limited information published on res-
taurant wastewater characteristics based on actual data (Lesikar

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 1168
Fig. 4. The effect of operative pH on turbidity removal efficiency and oil removal efficiency at different flocculant doses: 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 mg/L.
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Fig. 5. The effect of operative pH on turbidity removal efficiency and oil removal efficiency at different flocculant doses: 0, 1.5, 2.0 mg/L.
For personal use only.
et al. 2006). Recent studies suggest additional research is needed
to better understand wastewater characteristics from restaurants
to assist in the design of modern treatment systems (Angoli 2000;
Kommalapati 2001). The characteristics of RDE determined in this
study are summarized in Table 2 and Figs. 6, 7, and 8. The results
indicate that the contaminants in RDE varied between different
days of the week and during different times of the day.
Figures 6 and 8 demonstrate similar patterns in the variations
of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand
(COD), turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), and oil concentra-
tions, which appear to indicate that these parameters are directly
related. Table 3 presents typical characteristics of various restau-
rant wastewaters. Compared to them, RDE is of relatively low
strength and possesses different characteristics. However, it was
found that BOD and TSS values of the RDE are in agreement with
the reported values of domestic wastewater and greywater, as
shown in Table 2.
The ratio of BOD/COD based on average values was found to be
0.28, which is slightly below the typical values of 0.3 to 0.8 for
untreated municipal wastewater, as found in Tchobanoglous et al.
(2003). If the ratio is below 0.3, the contaminants may be either
slowly biodegradable or toxic, making biological treatment
unsuitable. Nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were mea-
sured to be significantly lower than concentrations found in do-
mestic wastewater, as shown in Table 2, suggesting that the RDE
was unsuitable for biological treatment unless nutrients are
added.
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 40, 2013
Consistent values of approximately 11 were measured for pH.
The stability of pH could be attributed to the use of alkaline clean-
ing agents, sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite during
the dishwashing cycles. In addition to raising the pH of the waste-
water, sodium hydroxide is commonly used to provide alkalinity
(Halse et al. 1987). Consequently, alkalinity was found at concen-
trations significantly higher than typical values for domestic
wastewater.
Data presented in Table 2 show that both domestic wastewater
and greywater contain high concentrations of coliform; however,
bacteriological test results showed no traces of total coliform or
E. coli in RDE. This is attributed to the use of sanitizing products,
which include sodium hypochlorite, during the dishwashing cy-
cles. The lack of bacteriological contamination suggests that
treated water may not require further disinfection since there is
sufficient chlorine residual present in the treated water as indi-
cated in Table 4.
3.4. Analysis of chemical DAF treated water
The chemical DAF system was operated based on the optimal
conditions of coagulation, flocculation, and flotation parameters
determined experimentally, which were as follows: alum dose =
300 mg/L, pH = 5.6 to 5.9, flocculant dose = 1.5 mg/L, rapid mixing
of alum for 120 s then flocculant for 30 s at mean velocity gradi-
ent (G) = 193 s−1 (air flow = 800 mL/min), flocculation for 120 s at
G = 62 s−1 (air flow = 80 mL/min), flotation using a saturation
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 Chung and Young
Fig. 6. Variations in turbidity, TSS, and oil concentrations of raw dishwasher effluent collected from the Beer Bros. Bakery & Cuisine on
20 different days.
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Fig. 7. Variations in nitrogen species, and phosphorus concentrations of raw dishwasher effluent collected from the Beer Bros. Bakery &
Cuisine on 7 non-consecutive days.
For personal use only.
pressure = 60 psi and a recycle ratio = 14%, and flotation detention
time = 5 min.
The analyses of chemical DAF treated water are presented in
Table 4. As indicated by the low standard deviations, the results
were consistent and reproducible. The results show that high re-
moval efficiencies were achieved for nearly all of the parameters
tested, which includes BOD, COD, TSS, and most importantly, OG.
This is of great importance because one of the objectives of using
a chemical DAF system in this research was to achieve high re-
movals of OG from RDE. Although OG concentrations in raw RDE
were notably lower than OG concentrations in typical restaurant
wastewater, it is still significantly higher than OG concentrations
in domestic wastewater. Of all the parameters measured, total
nitrogen and nitrate removal efficiencies were low. This was ex-
1169
pected due to the lack of biological nitrification and denitrifica-
tion.
To further evaluate the performance of chemical DAF, the ef-
fluent was analyzed to determine whether it could be reused in
accordance with the Canadian Guidelines for Domestic Reclaimed
Water for Use in Toilet and Urinal Flushing (Health Canada 2010), as
shown on Table 5. By comparing the results of Table 4 to the
guideline values in Table 5, it can be seen that all of the parame-
ters can be met except for BOD5. Despite obtaining low residuals
of turbidity and TSS, and showing no traces of total coliform or
E. coli, the residual values of BOD5 ranged from as high as 67 mg/L
to as low as 12.7 mg/L. As such, the BOD values could not meet the
median guideline value of ≤10 mg/L. Contributing to organic com-
ponents are concentrations of approximately 24 mg/L of residual
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 1170 Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 40, 2013

Fig. 8. Variations in oil concentration, BOD5, and COD of raw dishwasher effluent collected from the Beer Bros. Bakery & Cuisine on
5 non-consecutive days.
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Table 3. Comparison of characteristics of restaurant wastewaters.

Reference Cuisine BOD5 (mg/L) OG (mg/L) TSS (mg/L)
For personal use only.

BCDHE (1997) N/A 245–880 40–144 65–372

BCDHE (1997) N/A 1000–2000 100–300 300–625
Chen et al. (2000) Chinese 58–1430 120–172 13–246
Chen et al. (2000) Western 489–1410 53–2100 152–545
Chen et al. (2000) American fast-food 405–2240 158–799 68–345
Chen et al. (2000) Student canteen 545–1630 415–1970 124–1320
Chen et al. (2000) Bistro 451–704 140–410 359–567
Chu and Hsu (1999) Chinese N/A 11–19850 N/A
Lesikar et al. (2006) Western 1523* 197* 664*
Stoll and Gupta (1997) Thai 4700–5400 240–2000 1250–9950
Stoll and Gupta (1997) Thai/Japanese 7400 200–1850 1380
Stoll and Gupta (1997) Western 9200 580–3200 1100
Stoll and Gupta (1997) Thai and Western 6000 730 2160
Stoll and Gupta (1997) Chinese 3300 1110 2400
Min/Max 58–9200 11–19850 13–9950
Note: BOD5, 5-day biochemical oxygen demand; OG, oil and grease; TSS, total suspended solids.
*Design value.

Table 4. Analysis of chemical DAF treated water.

Raw restaurant Residual
dishwasher concentration % removal after
effluent after treatment treatment
Parameter (unit) (# of samples) Average STDEV Average STDEV Average STDEV
pH (9) 11.1 0.12 6.15 0.19
Turbidity (NTU) (9) 288 126 2.84 0.85 98.90 0.35
OG (mg/L) (8) 433 169 24.3 3.7 93.16 4.47
TSS (mg/L) (8) 269 159 1.4 0.9 98.68 2.35
COD (mg/L) (6) 1106 472 118.2 30.2 88.20 3.53
BOD5 (mg/L) (6) 308 105 29.8 20 90.04 5.28
Total nitrogen (mg/L) (7) 3.84 1.57 1.76 0.7 53.49 6.36
Ammonia (mg/L) (7) 0.483 0.211 0.028 0.013 93.82 2.59
Nitrite (mg/L) (7) 0.331 0.092 <0.015 >95.77
Nitrate (mg/L) (7) 1.478 0.509 0.403 0.157 71.29 9.15
Phosphorus (mg/L) (7) 9.77 0.95 0.848 0.221 91.38 1.81
Total coliform/E. coli (CFU/100mL) (2) Not detected Not detected N/A N/A
Total chlorine residual (mg/L) (5) >0.5 >0.5 N/A N/A
Note: BOD5, 5-day biochemical oxygen demand; COD, chemical oxygen demand; TSS, total suspended solids; OG, oil and grease;
NTU, nephelometric turbidity unit; CFU, colony-forming unit.

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 Chung and Young
Table 5. Guideline values for domestic reclaimed water used in toilet
and urinal flushinga (reproduced from Health Canada 2010).
Water quality
parameters
Parameter Units Median Maximum
BOD5 mg/L ≤10 ≤20
TSSb mg/L ≤10 ≤20
Turbidityb NTU ≤2 ≤5
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY on 12/31/14
Escherichia colic CFU/100 mL Not detected ≤200
Thermotolerant coliformsc CFU/100 mL Not detected ≤200
Total chlorine residuald mg/L ≥0.5
Note: BOD5, five-day biochemical oxygen demand; TSS, total suspended sol-
ids; NTU, nephelometric turbidity unit; CFU, colony-forming unit.
aUnless otherwise noted, recommended quality limits apply to the reclaimed
water at the point of discharge from the treatment facility or treatment unit.
bMeasured prior to disinfection point. Only one of TSS and turbidity needs to
be monitored in a given system.
cOnly one of Escherichia coli and thermotolerant coliforms needs to be moni-
tored in a given system.
dMeasured at the point where the treated effluent enters the distribution–
plumbing system.
oil. Throughout the research, the lowest residual oil concentra-
tion obtained was 15.1 mg/L; however, for the majority of the time,
concentrations were around 20 mg/L. This indicates that there still
exists some emulsified oil, along with some other organic com-
pounds, in the treated water that could not be removed by the
chemical DAF system. Therefore, more research is required to
lower the BOD5 residual concentration so that the treated RDE can
For personal use only.
meet water reuse guidelines. Although not a regulated parameter
in the guideline, concentrations of residual COD were relatively
high, which suggests that further treatment is required for water
reuse purposes. Residual COD may include residual concentra-
tions of dishwashing chemicals that include non-ionic surfac-
tants. The concentration of sodium hypochlorite in the raw RDE
was high enough that the treated water was able to meet the
guideline values for total chlorine and bacteriological parameters
as presented in Table 4.
Despite of the fact that BOD5 could not meet the guideline value
for reuse, the chemical DAF system performed remarkably well
on the treatment of RDE and proved to be effective in oil, organic
matter, and suspended solids removals.
4. Conclusions
In this research, a chemical DAF system was designed, built, and
operated to evaluate its performance on the removal of contami-
nants from RDE. Currently, to the authors' knowledge, there is
no published research on the treatment of RDE. To operate the
chemical DAF system at optimal performance, the effects of coag-
ulation and flocculation parameters on contaminant removal ef-
ficiencies were investigated. The major findings of this research
are as follows:
1. Operative pH exhibited a significant effect on the performance
of the chemical DAF system. By operating in the optimum
operative pH zone and adding sufficient doses of alum and
flocculant, high contaminant removal efficiencies were achieved.
It was also verified that the addition of flocculant was neces-
sary and resulted in significant improvements in removal effi-
ciencies.
2. Analysis of raw RDE identified high levels of BOD, OG, alkalin-
ity, pH, and chlorine, and low levels of nutrients. The analysis
suggests that RDE is a high strength wastewater, but of lower
strength and different characteristics than typical wastewa-
ters discharged from kitchens.
3. Removal efficiencies of 98.90%, 93.16%, 98.68%, 90.04%, and
88.20% were achieved for turbidity, oil concentration, TSS,
BOD5, and COD, respectively. Present findings showed that the
1171
chemical DAF system performed remarkably well on RDE and
proved that not only is it effective in oil removal, but also in
organic matter and suspended solids removal.
4. Neither total coliform nor E. coli was detected in raw RDE or in
the treated water due to the use of sodium hypochlorite as a
dishwashing sanitizer.
5. Water quality parameters of the chemical DAF treated water
met all of the reuse guideline values for toilet and urinal flush-
ing with the exception of BOD5. Therefore, to be reusable,
further research and development are required to investigate
methods or treatment processes that are capable of further
lowering the organic content of the treated RDE.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Alex Munoz, Greg Han-
well, Darren Carter, and Tim Cox for their helpful suggestions and
technical support. The generous financial support by the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Western
Economic Partnership Agreement (WEPA), Communities of To-
morrow, the Beer Bros. Bakery & Cuisine, the Faculty of Graduate
Studies and Research, and the Faculty of Engineering and Applied
Science is greatly appreciated.
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List of symbols
G mean velocity gradient, s−1
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