Treatability Studies of Dairy Wastewater by Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor

Abstract

In any dairy plant, the quantity and characteristics of effluent is depending upon the extent of production activities, pasteurization of several milk products. The anaerobic digesters are used in the first phase of treatment, which is followed by high rate aerobic treatment. It remains as the most common effluent treatment scheme for dairy plants. The Indian dairy industry is stated to have the growth at more than 15% and waste water is poised to cross 150 million tones / annum. The requirement for milk and milk products is keep growing in steady state, making a significant impact on the Indian agriculture domain. The dairy industries require large quantity of water for the purpose of washing of cans, machinery and floor, the liquid waste in a dairy originates from manufacturing process, utilities and service section. So there is every need to reuse the waste water generated with proper and efficient treatment methods. Biological wastewater treatment has been performed in many different ways .In order to overcome the limitations of suspended and attached growth systems. Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket reactors are designed. UASB is a hybrid type of reactor, involving both suspended and attached growth process. This study involves the treatment of dairy industry wastewater by UASB reactor by varying the retention times in days for a particular organic loading rate . This has effectively removed BOD, COD and other parameters because of the combined suspended and attached growth processes

Keywords: UASB reactor, COD removal, biogas production.