Study of the Energy Use of Biosolids from a Chicken Slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment Plant

• Main Authors: Vanessa Suarez, Leonel Atuesta, Jesus Manuel Epalza Contreras
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. 2019-06-01
• Series: Chemical Engineering Transactions
• Online Access: https://www.cetjournal.it/index.php/cet/article/view/9686

The poultry industry in Colombia faces operational and environmental challenges, one of these is the integration of residual biosolids in other processes, which may generate a direct or indirect benefit within their production. This study shows the results obtained in the anaerobic treatment of the residual biosolid of the wastewater treatment plant of a chicken slaughtering plant; This biosolid is the result of the coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation process with ferric chloride, as main coagulant and possible flocculating substances in the process. The anaerobic treatment of biosolids is carried out in a CSTR bioreactor, with a capacity of 10 litres, inside the bioreactor the system is started, and different variables are monitored, such as pH, volatile fatty acids, alkalinity, sulphates , chlorides and chemical oxygen demand, which will determine the transformations of organic matter within the bioreactor, additionally biogas measurements resulting from anaerobic digestion are made, the gases analysed are methane, hydrogen sulphide, carbon monoxide and oxygen, which determine the quality of the biogas produced, together with the volume produced of biogas with respect to the volume of biosolids deposited in the bioreactor. This seeks to determine the productive capacity of the biosolids, to be stabilized and exploited energetically, considering that biogas is a usable biofuel and the resulting biosolid is a good raw material to produce organic fertilizers, destined to the agricultural production of animal feed.