Dairy Industry Effluents Treatment
Anaerobic Treatment of Whey in Stirred Batch Reactor
Abdulrzzak Alturkmani, Dr. Eng., Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest (Sanitary Engineering and
Water Protection Department), Romania 2007. E-mail: drengabdul@hotmail.com
1. Introduction
The dairy industry is characterized by the multitude of
products and therefore production lines. Plants can have
as few as one or two production lines or all of them
(pasteurized milk, cheese, butter, etc.). Service and
ancillary units provide water and energy requirements as
well as maintenance, storage, packaging, testing and
analysis needs. Because of the nature of milk and milk
products, which are susceptible to microbial spoilage,
equipment is characterized by designs which facilitate
hygienic operation, easy cleaning and sterilization.
While many older plants use open equipment and batch
processing, modern dairy food plants used closed
systems operated continuously for periods up to 24
hours. Shut down for cleaning is generally required at
least once per day.
2. Milk
Milk is the nutrient fluid secreted by the mammary
glands of female mammals (including monotremes). The
female ability to produce milk is one of the defining
characteristics of mammals. It provides the primary
source of nutrition for newborns before they are able to
digest more diverse foods. The early lactation milk is
known as colostrum, and carries the mother's antibodies
to the baby. It can reduce the risk of many diseases in
both the mother and baby. Milk from domesticated
animals has been used by humans since at least 8000 BC.
Although sheep and goats were the first domesticated
dairy animals, because they are more easily managed
than cattle, but now the cattle are the dominant dairy
animals.
Total recorded world milk production is ≈ 600 mil
tonnes per annum, of which ≈ 85% is bovine, 11% is
buffalo and 2% each is from sheep and goats (Gerrit,
2003). The proportions of total world milk production
used for the principal dairy products are: liquid
(beverage) milk, ≈ 39%; cheese, ≈ 33%; butter, ≈ 32%;
whole milk powder, ≈6%; skimmed milk powder, ≈ 9%;
concentrated milk products, ≈ 2%; fermented milk
products, ≈ 2%; casein, ≈ 2%; and infant formulae, ≈
0.3%.
Milk is a very complex liquid consisting of over 100,000
different molecules. The gross composition of milk is
defined as the fat, protein, lactose, ash, and total solids
content. For cow's milk the gross composition is 4.1%
fat; 3.6% protein; 4.9% lactose; 0.7% miscellaneous
components including minerals, vitamins, and gases; and
the balance in water (Hui, Y. K., 1993). The fat in milk
is comprised mainly of triglycerides containing a wide
range of fatty acids, which in turn contain a relatively
high proportion of short-chain and saturated fatty acids.
1
It has been known since 1830 that milk contains two
types of protein which can be separated by acidification
to pH 4.6. The proteins insoluble at pH 4.6 are called
caseins and represent ≈ 78% of the total nitrogen in
bovine milk; the soluble proteins are called whey or
serum proteins (Gerrit, 2003).
Lactose is the principal carbohydrate in the milks of all
mammals; non-mammalian sources are very rare. Milk
contains only trace amounts of other sugars, including
glucose (50 mg/l), fructose, glucosamine, etc.
3. Dairy Processing
The dairy industry is divided into two main
production areas:
1- The primary production of milk on farms-the keeping
of cows (and other animals such as goats, sheep etc.) for
the production of milk for human consumption;
2- The processing of milk with the objective of
extending its saleable life. This objective is typically
achieved by:
(a) heat treatment to ensure that milk is safe for human
consumption and has an extended keeping quality, and
(b) preparing a variety of dairy products in a semi-
dehydrated or dehydrated form (butter, hard cheese and
milk powders), which can be stored.
Dairy processing occurs world-wide; however the
structure of the industry varies from country to country.
In less developed countries, milk is generally sold
directly to the public, but in major milk producing
countries most milk is sold on a wholesale basis. In
Ireland and Australia, for example, many of the large-
scale processors are owned by the farmers as co-
operatives, while in the United States individual
contracts are agreed between farmers and processors.
Dairy processing industries in the major dairy
producing countries have undergone rationalisation, with
a trend towards fewer but larger plants operated by
fewer people. As a result, in the United States, Europe,
Australia and New Zealand most dairy processing plants
are quite large. Plants producing market milk and
products with short shelf life, such as yogurts, creams
and soft cheeses, tend to be located on the fringe of
urban centres close to consumer markets. Plants
manufacturing items with longer shelf life, such as
butter, milk powders, cheese and whey powders, tend to
be located in rural areas closer to the milk supply.
3.1 Production of pasteurized and UHT milk
The main operations for producing the pasteurized
and ultra high temperature (UHT) milks include:
* Receiving and testing raw milk: Raw milk is received
from the collection centers which are either privately
owned or government owned (public sector).
Milk is tested for quality by the facility lab, which
measures the following parameters: fat content, solid
content, presence of preservatives (formaldehyde). The
price of received milk is determined according to the
measured quality and consequently reduced for lower fat
or protein content. Milk is rejected if formaldehyde is
present.
* Straining: The accepted milk is then passed through
strainers then to a volume-measuring device for
quantification. Milk is then cooled to 6-8 ْC and stored in
storage tanks, some for cow milk and others for buffalo
milk.
* Pasteurization: Milk is heated in two stages, first from
7 to 65 ْC, and then from 65 to 80 ْC. It is kept at 80 ْC
for 15 sec, and then cooled to 4-6 ْC. The heating and
cooling processes are applied to ensure that most
commonly present bacteria are killed and accordingly
guarantee public safety. Fig. 1 Principal stages of cheese-making process
* UHT milk: Pasteurized milk is sterilized by raising the (Smith, 1995)
temperature to 135–150 ْC for 4 seconds (Ultra High
Temperature, UHT). Milk is then homogenized by 3.3 Dairy Processing Effluents
reducing the size of fat globules to prevent separation of The volume, concentration, and composition of the
cream on the surface. effluents arising in a dairy plant are dependent on the
* Packaging: Milk is introduced in an automatic filling type of product being processed, the production
machine that usually used polyethylene bags. program, operating methods, design of the processing
plant, the degree of water management being applied,
3.2 Cheese and subsequently the amount of water being conserved.
Cheese is one of mankind's oldest foodstuffs. It is Dairy wastewater may be divided into three major
nutritious. There are at least three constants in categories:
cheesemaking: milk, coagulant, and culture. By
introducing heating and salting steps in cheesemaking, a 1- Processing waters, which include water used in the
potential for numerous varieties has been realized. cooling and heating processes. These effluents are
On a global scale, 30% of all milk is used for cheese; the normally free of pollutants and can with minimum
proportion is about 40% in North America and about treatment be reused or just discharged into the storm
50% in the European Union (Fox. P. F, 1998). Although water system.
traditional cheeses have a rather high fat content, they 2- Cleaning wastewaters emanate mainly from the
are rich sources of protein and in most cases of calcium cleaning of equipment that has been in contact with milk
and phosphorus and have anticarigenic properties; some or milk products, spillage of milk and milk products,
typical compositional data are presented in Table 1. whey, pressings and brines, CIP cleaning options, and
There are at least 1000 named cheese varieties, most of waters resulting from equipment malfunctions and even
which have very limited production (Fox. P. F, 1998). operational errors.
The principal families are Cheddar, Dutch, Swiss and 3- Sanitary wastewater, which is normally piped directly
Pasta filata (e.g. Mozzarella), which together account for to sewage works.
about 80% of total cheese production.
Before the methods of treatment of diary processing
Table 1 Composition of selected cheese per 100 g wastewater can be appreciated, it is important to be
(Fox. P. F, 1998) acquainted with the various processes involved in diary
Cheese type Water (g) Protein (g) Fat (g) product manufacturing and the pollution potential of
Cheddar 36 25.5 34.4 different dairy products (Table 2). Wastewater loading
Cottage 79.1 13.8 3.9 for the American dairy industry is summarized in Table
Cream cheese 45.5 3.1 47.4 3.
Feta 56.5 15.6 20.2
Mozzarella 49.8 25.1 21 Table 2 Reported BOD and COD values for typical
dairy products (Wang & Howard, 2004)
Typically, five steps, or groups of steps, are involved Product BOD5 mg/l COD mg/l
in the conversion of milk to cheese curd: Whole milk 114,000 183,000
(1) coagulation, Skim milk 90,000 147,000
(2) acidification, Butter milk 61,000 134,000
(3) syneresis (expulsion of whey), Cream 400,000 750,000
(4) molding/shaping and Evaporated milk 271,000 378,000
(5) salting Whey 42,000 65,000
Ice cream 292,000 -
The basic stages of cheese-making shown in Fig. 1.

2
 Table 3 American dairy and milk processing plant
effluent loadings (Cast, 1995)
Wastewater
Products
(kg ww/kg milk) range
Milk 0.10-5.40
Cheese 1.63-5.70
Ice cream 0.80-5.60
Condensed milk 1.00-3.30
Powder 1.50-5.90
Cottage cheese 0.80-12.40
Cottage cheese and milk 0.05-7.20
Cottage cheese, ice cream, and milk 1.40-3.90
Mixed products 0.80-4.60
Milk has BOD content 250 times greater than that of
sewage. It can therefore be expected that dairy
wastewaters will have relatively high organic loads, with
the main contributors being lactose, fats, and proteins
(mainly casein), as well as high levels of nitrogen and
phosphorus that are largely associated with milk
proteins. The COD and BOD for whey have, for
instance, been established to be between 35,000-68,000
mg/l, with lactose being responsible for 90% of the COD
and BOD contribution (Wang & Howard, 2004).
4. Treatment of Dairy Wastewater
4.1 Introduction
The dairy industry is generally considered to be the
largest source of food processing wastewater in many
countries. As awareness of the importance of improved
standards of wastewater treatment grows, process
requirements have become increasingly stringent.
Although the dairy industry is not commonly associated
with severe environmental problems, it must continually
consider its environmental impact, particularly as dairy
pollutants are mainly of organic origin. For dairy
companies with good effluent management systems in
place, treatment is not a major problem, but when
accidents happen, the resulting publicity can be
embarrassing and very costly.
All steps in the dairy chain, including production,
processing, packaging, transportation, storage,
distribution, and marketing, impact the environment.
Owing to the highly diversified nature of this industry,
various product processing, handling, and packaging
operations create wastes of different quality and quantity,
which, if not treated, could lead to increased disposal and
severe pollution problems. In general, wastes from the
dairy processing industry contain high concentrations of
organic material such as proteins, carbohydrates, and
lipids, high concentrations of suspended solids, or high
biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen
demand (COD), high nitrogen concentrations, high
suspended oil and/or grease contents, and large
variations in pH, which necessitates "specialty" treatment
so as to prevent or minimize environmental problems.
The dairy waste streams are also characterized by wide
fluctuations in flow rates, which are related to
discontinuity in the production cycles of the different
products. These aspects increase the complexity of the
wastewater treatment process.
3
The problem for most dairy plants is that waste
treatment is perceived to be a necessary evil; it ties up
valuable capital, which could be better utilized for core
business activity. Dairy wastewater disposal usually
results in one of three problems:
(a) high treatment levies being charged by local
authorities for industrial wastewater;
(b) pollution might be caused when untreated
wastewater is either discharged into the environment or
used directly as irrigation water; and
(c) dairy plants that have already installed an aerobic
biological system are faced with the problem of sludge
disposal. To enable the dairy industry to contribute to
water conservation, an efficient and cost-effective
wastewater treatment technology is critical.
The level of treatment is normally dictated by
environmental regulations applicable to the specific area.
While most of larger dairy factories have installed
treatment plants or, if available, dispose of their
wastewater into municipal sewers, cases of wastewater
disposal into the sea or disposal by means of land
irrigation do occur. In contrast, most of smaller dairy
factories dispose of their wastewater by irrigation onto
lands or pastures.
Because the dairy industry is a major user and
generator of water, it is a candidate for wastewater reuse.
Even if the purified wastewater is initially not reused,
the dairy industry will still benefit from in-house
wastewater treatment management, because reducing
waste at the source can only help in reducing costs or
improving the performance of any downstream treatment
facility. Best practice of diary wastewater treatment is
given in Fig. 2.
Segregation
Screening
Equalisation
pH Control
Fat Removal
BOD Removal
Land Irrigation
Fig. 2 Best practice for dairy wastewater treatment
4.2 Treatment Options
The highly variable nature of dairy wastewaters in
terms of volumes and flow rates (which is dependent on
the factory size and operation shifts) and in terms of pH
and suspended solid (SS) content (mainly the result of
the choice of cleaning strategy employed) makes the
choice of an effective wastewater treatment regime
difficult. Because dairy wastewaters are highly
biodegradable, they can be effectively treated with
biological wastewater treatment systems, but can pose a
potential environmental hazard if not treated properly.
 The three main options for the dairy industry are:
(a) discharge to and subsequent treatment of factory
wastewater at a nearby sewage treatment plant;
(b) removal of semisolid and special wastes from the
site by waste disposal contractors; or
(c) the treatment of factory wastewater in an onsite
wastewater treatment plant.
According to Robinson (1994), the first two options are
continuously impacted by increasing costs, while the
control of allowable levels of SS, BOD, and COD in
discharged wastewaters are also becoming more
stringent.
4.3 Biological Treatment
Biological degradation is one of the most promising
options for the removal of organic material from dairy
wastewaters. However, sludge formed, especially during
the aerobic biodegradation processes, may lead to serious
and costly disposal problems. This can be aggravated by
the ability of sludge to adsorb specific organic
compounds and even toxic heavy metals. However,
biological systems have the advantage of microbial
transformations of complex organics and possible
adsorption of heavy metals by suitable microbes.
Biological processes are still fairly unsophisticated and
have great potential for combining various types of
biological schemes for selective component removal
(Wang & Howard, 2004).
4.3.1 Aerobic Treatment
Aerobic biological treatment methods depend on
microorganisms grown in an oxygen-rich environment to
oxidize organics to carbon dioxide, water, and cellular
material. Systems of aerobic treatment can include the
conventional activated sludge process, the rotating
biological contactors, the conventional trickling filters,
etc.
4.3.1 Anaerobic Treatment
Anaerobic treatment is a biological process ideally
suited for the pretreatment of high strength wastewaters
that are typical of many industrial facilities today.
Anaerobic digestion is a process by which microbes are
used in the absence of oxygen for the stabilization of
organic matters by conversion to biogas (methane and
carbon dioxide), new biomass and inorganic products.
Up to 95% of the organic load in a waste stream can be
converted to biogas (methane and carbon dioxide) and
the remainder is utilized for cell growth and
maintenance. The process reactors are covered to prevent
the introduction of air and the release of odor.
4.3.1.1 Anaerobic metabolism and biochemical pathways
The biochemistry of anaerobic organisms is quite
similar to aerobic organisms to some extent. In case of
anaerobic organisms, oxygen can not serve as the
electron acceptors. In fermentation, the electron donors
are usually organic compounds. Generally, anaerobic
bacteria may be divided into two groups: 1) facultative
anaerobes and 2) anaerobes. The anaerobic digestion
process and production of methane is divided into stages.
Three stages often are used to explain the sequence of
microbial events that occur during the digestion process
and the production of methane. These stages are:
4
1- Hydrolysis
2- Acidogenesis & Acetogenesis
3- Methanogenesis
* Stage -1- Hydrolysis
Since bacteria are unable to take up particulate
organic matter, the first step in anaerobic degradation
consists of the hydrolysis of polymers through the action
of exo-enzymes to produce smaller molecules which can
cross the cell barrier. Two types of enzymes are involved
in substrate degradation: Endoenzymes and exoenzymes
as shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3 Types of enzymes (Michael, 2003)
All bacteria produce endoenzymes, but not all bacteria
produce exoenzymes. Each exoenzyme as well as each
endoenzyme degrades only a specific substrate or group
of substrates. Therefore, a large and diverse community
of bacteria is needed to ensure that the proper types of
exoenzymes and endoenzymes are available for
degradation of the substrates present. The relative
abundance of bacteria within an anaerobic digester often
16
is greater than 10 cells per millilitre (Michael, 2003).
The large insoluble molecules consisting of many small
molecules joined together by unique chemical bonds.
The small molecules are soluble and quickly go into
solution once the chemical bonds are broken. Hydrolytic
bacteria or facultative anaerobes and anaerobes that are
capable of performing hydrolysis achieve breakage of
these unique bonds.
Hydrolysis is in most cases, notably with sewage as
substrate, rate-limiting for the overall process of
anaerobic degradation of organic matter and is very
sensitive to temperature. For that reason, design of the
anaerobic reactors for sewage treatment is usually based
on the hydrolysis step. Anaerobic digesters at industrial
wastewater treatment plants that degrade simplistic,
soluble organic compounds such as glucose do not
experience hydrolysis stage.
* Stage -2- Acidogenesis & Acetogenesis
During the acidogenesis (or fermentation process),
the hydrolysis products which are relatively small,
soluble compounds are diffused inside the cells of
facultative anaerobes and anaerobes through the cell
membrane and then are either fermented or
anaerobically oxidized. These processes occur by a
complex consortium of hydrolytic and non-hydrolytic
microorganisms which are the source of energy for the
acidifying population. The degradation of these
compounds results in the production of CO2, H2S,
alcohols, organic acids, some organic-N compounds, and
some organic-sulfur compounds. The most important of
the acids is acetate. Acetate is the principal organic acid
or volatile acid used as a substrate by methane-forming
acteria. The short chain-fatty acids, other than acetate,
that are produced in the acidogenesis step are further
converted to acetate, hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide
by the acetogenic bacteria. The available H2 and CO2 are
partly converted into acetate. Both propionate and
butyrate acids are important intermediates in anaerobic
digestion, and then are converted by the hydrogen
producing acetogenic bacteria into acetate and hydrogen.
The methane-forming bacteria can not use propionate
and butyrate directly to produce CH4. Acetogenic
bacteria reproduce very slowly; generation time for these
organisms is usually greater than 3 days.
* Stage -3- Methanogenesis
In the methanogenic stage, methane is formed mostly
from acetate and both carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas.
Methane is also formed from some organic compounds
other than acetate. Therefore, all other fermentative
products must be converted to compounds that can be
used directly or indirectly by methane-forming bacteria.
Acids, alcohols, and organic-nitrogen compounds that
are not degraded by methane-forming bacteria
accumulate in the digester supernatant. Methane-forming
bacteria are oxygen-sensitive, fastidious anaerobes and
are free-living terrestrial and aquatic organisms. All
methane-forming bacteria produce methane. No other
organism produces methane.
Methane-forming bacteria obtain energy by reducing
simplistic compounds or substrates like CO2 and acetate
(CH3COOH). Some methane-forming bacteria are
capable of fixing molecular nitrogen (N2).
5
The reproductive times or generation times for
methane-forming bacteria range from 3 days at 35°C to
50 days at 10°C. Because of the long generation time of
methane-forming bacteria, high retention times are
required in an anaerobic digester to ensure the growth of
a large population of methane-forming bacteria for the
degradation of organic compounds. At least 12 days are
required to obtain a large population of methane-forming
bacteria. There are three principal groups of methane-
forming bacteria:
1) the hydrogenotrophic methanogens,
2) the acetotrophic methanogens, and
3) the methylotrophic methanogens
The use of different substrates by methane-forming
bacteria results in different energy gains by the bacteria.
For example, hydrogen-consuming methane production
results in more energy gain for methane-forming
bacteria than acetate degradation. Although methane
production using hydrogen is the more effective process
of energy capture by methane-forming bacteria, less than
30% of the methane produced in an anaerobic digester is
by this method. Approximately 70% of the methane
produced in an anaerobic digester is derived from
acetate. There are many factors affecting performance of
anaerobic processes such as: pH, temperature, alkalinity,
nutrients, toxic substances and retention times.
High-strength wastes are usually treated in anaerobic
suspended growth systems, whereas soluble wastewaters
are usually treated in anaerobic fixed-film systems.
Table 4 shows a summary of efficiencies of some
biological treatment systems used to treat dairy effluents.
5. Anaerobic Treatment of Whey in Stirred
Batch Reactor (AnSBR)
This research orientation was the biological treatment
of whey using anaerobic process. The study was carried
out in laboratory scale with anaerobic stirred batch
reactor, using fresh whey. The main focuses were
investigating the feasibility of a biological process for
treating highly concentrated carbohydrate-containing
wastewater under anaerobic conditions and also the
monitoring of biogas production and COD reduction.
Anaerobic operation has recently been accepted as an
effective mean of treating high strength wastewaters. For
wastewater with a total BOD in excess of 4000 mg/1,
anaerobic contact process was cheaper than an aerobic
process. There were many applications which were
described for wastewater from the meat packing,
brewing, pharmaceutical and food processing industries.
There are some benefits of anaerobic processes in
treating organic wastewater, which can be summarized
as follows:
(1) Low cellular yields. This process requires only
relatively few inorganic nutrients for treating wastewater
and produces only little amounts of surplus sludge.
(2) The major gas product is methane, a valuable and
sustainable energy resource. The second major gas is
carbon dioxide.
(3) No requirement of oxygen in the process, in contrary
strictly anaerobic conditions and the absence of nitrate
are required.
(4) Good capability for degrading a variety of natural
organic compounds. Produce a residual sludge which is
inoffensive and useful as a soil conditioner and low
grade fertilizer.
(5) Anaerobic digestion of primary sewage sludge
effectively reduces the concentration of pathogenic
microorganisms.
5.1 Whey
Whey is the serum of milk resulting after removal of
fat and casein. Whey is a by product in cheese and casein
production. There are two kinds of whey, depending on
the type of milk coagulation used, either sweet or sour
whey. Sweet whey is obtained if milk is coagulated by
proteolytic enzymes, such as chymosine and pepsine or
microbial enzymes produced from Mucor miehei and
Mucor pusillus. It comes from the production of cheddar,
Swiss and Italian varieties of cheese. Acid whey is
obtained if milk is coagulated by acids mainly by lactate
from lactic acid fermentation of lactose. It comes from
soft cheese production, with cottage cheese as a
predominant product. The chemical composition of whey
depends upon the type of coagulation used.
It contains roughly half the solid of the whole milk from
which it is derived and most of the water soluble
vitamins and minerals. Typical whey contains around
6.5% total solids. These include lactose (68-72%),
protein (12-13%), minerals (8-9%) plus small amounts of
fat and lactic acid. Generally, 100 L of milk produces
about 12 kg of cheese or about 3 kg of casein. In either
case, about 87 L of whey is made as a byproduct
(Marisa, 2004).
6
5.2 Experiment Design
5.2.1 Laboratory-scale anaerobic stirred batch
reactor
The reactor used for the study was glass vessel with a
theoretical volume of 2.5 L, and 2 litres of working
volume. The reactor had an off-gas line attached to the
lid of the vessel. A scheme of the stirred batch reactor,
which was used in this study, is shown in Fig. 4. The
primary components of the system were the main reactor
compartment, the wastewater supplying system,
thermometer, the constant temperature jacket providing
by automatic pumping of hot air, pH electrode, pH
adjustment system, magnetic stirrer device and the
biogas measuring system. The reactor was surrounded
by a hot-air-jacketed glass vessel. Fresh whey
(wastewater) feed was added into the system in different
concentrations. Biogas left the reactor through a port at
the top and was measured by water displacement. Hot air
was pumped through the air-jacket surrounding the
reactor to maintain the temperature at 38 ْC.
Fig. 4 A Scheme of anaerobic stirred batch reactor
Where:
1. Reactor, 2. Hot-air Jacket, 3. Air heating device, 4. pH electrode, 5.
Thermometer, 6. Buffering solution tank, 7. Wastewater (whey) feed
tank, 8. Digital reading device of pH and temperature, 9. Biogas pipe,
10. Releasing biogas pipe to the air, 11. Samples taking pipe, 12.
Discharge tap, 13. Biogas measuring apparatus, 14. Magnetic stirrer
device, 15. Automatic control device of hot air pumping, 16.
Electricity source.
5.2.2 Reactor operation
The AnSBR reactor was fed with a wastewater, in
different concentrations of COD, which was prepared by
diluting the fresh whey (75000 mg/l of COD), provided
by a cheese maker, with water. It was anticipated that by
seeding the pilot-scale digester with anaerobic sludge
taken from a septic tank to reduce the time required for
start-up period. The sludge volume was 25% of the
wastewater used in the test (1:4 seed/feed ratio).
This reactor was operated under various organic
loading rates (OLR) and various hydraulic retention
times (HRT). Firstly, reactor was fed with 100 ml of
fresh whey per liter of water (10 % in concentration)
with different retention times. The working volume of
reactor (2 litres) was operated under a draw/feed regime
(i.e. 200 ml of the reactor contents were drawn from the
reactor prior to feeding with an equivalent volume of
fresh feed). Different retention times (e.g. 1, 2, etc, of
days) used in this stage. Secondly, feeding percentage
(e.g. 80, 100, 200 ml, etc, of whey per litre of water) was
increased step by step. The reactor performance was
monitored by daily measurement of the pH, temperature
and the total biogas production.
The COD for both influent and effluent and the biogas
100
production were measured. The pH in the reactor was 90
measured automatically by a pH electrode unit. pH 80

Organic removal %
controlling is very important, especially to the 70
methanogenic stage. The pH adjustment process 60
accomplished manually by adding buffering capacity, i.e 50

alkaline solutions. Buffering capacity can be increased 40

30
with addition of bicarbonates (e.g. NaHCO3) or
20
compounds reacting with carbon dioxide and thus 10
producing bicarbonates (e.g. NaOH). The pH value was 0
kept in range 6.5 - 7.5 (Shanta, 2004). In certain cases, 0 10 20 30 40
the pH adjusting and the temperature controlling were Organic loading rate (OLR), (g COD/l.d)
stopped in order to determine the reactor capabilities for
degrading organic pollutants. Fig. 5 is shown the pilot- Fig. 7 Organic removal efficiency at different OLR
scale used in the experiment. Finally, the reactor
performance was monitored after adding minerals (e.g. The production of biogas, in our study, increased
FeC13). continuously, day by day, until reaching to a constant
value nearly. The maximum production of biogas was
0.32 litre per gram of COD removed (or nearly 20.8 L of
biogas per litre of whey) as shown in Fig. 8.
0.35

Biogas production (l/g COD removal)

0.3

0.25

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time of test running (days)

Fig. 5 A Pilot-scale of anaerobic stirred batch reactor

Fig. 8 The maximum biogas production per g CODremoved
5.3 Results Ferric ions addition has an improving effect on
The AnSBR reactor was fed with fresh whey (75000 methanogenesis by increasing the methane production
mg of COD per litre) diluted with water in different and acetate conversion rate. The methane production
concentrations. The start up stage was used 10 % of increases higher than theoretically expected by adding
diluted whey (100 ml of whey per litre of water or 7.5 g ferric ions. The additional of ferric ions improve
COD/l). The AnSBR mixed completely by magnetic methanogenesis. It increases the methane production
stirrer (200-400 rpm). After many weeks of start-up during the exponential phase. By adding 50 mg/l of
operation, a constant concentration of organic feeding FeC13 to the AnSBR in our experiment, the biogas
(10 g COD/l.d) was applied at various hydraulic production increased nearly 50% as shown in Fig. 9.
retention times. The organic removal efficiencies are
shown in Fig. 6. A COD removal efficiency of >= 76 %
was achieved when the reactor was operated at a HRT
longer than 5 days and an OLR lower than 10 g COD/l.d
(Figure 6 and 7). The COD removal efficiency decreased
to less than 74 % when the OLR was increased above 15
g COD/l.d. The maximum removal of COD was 87% for
7.5 g COD/l.d of OLR.
100
90
80
Organic removals %

70
60
Fig. 9 Effect of FeC13 adding to the AnSBR on biogas
50 production. (A) Without adding FeC13, (B) With
40 adding 50 mg/l of FeC13.
30
20
10 Finally, the current study of using AnSBR as a pilot
0 scale is a modest step to explain the capability of the
0 5 10 15 20
HRT (days)
anaerobic stirred batch reactor to be a primary stage of
treatment of high organic wastewater. Interesting results
Fig. 6 Organic removal efficiency at different HRT have made, but more investigations should be achieved.

7
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Web Sites and Companies

1- Ellis Corporation, http://www.elliscorp.com/index.htm

2- Glanbia Company, www.glanbia.com
3- Homs Dairy Company Publications 2006, http://www.homs-dairy.com