Trickling Filter for High Efficiency Treatment of Dairy Sewage

• Main Authors: Radosław Marcin Żyłka, Wojciech Dąbrowski, Elena Gogina, Olga Yancen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Polish Society of Ecological Engineering (PTIE) 2018-07-01
• Series: Journal of Ecological Engineering
• Subjects: trickling filter; dairy wastewater; dissolved air flotation; wastewater treatment efficiency
• Online Access: http://www.journalssystem.com/jeeng/Trickling-filter-for-high-efficiency-teatment-of-dairy-sewage,89657,0,2.html

The article presents the results of research on the possibility of using a trickling filter for high efficiency treatment of dairy sewage. Nowadays, up to the authors’ knowledge, it is possible to change activated sludge system to trickling filter technology, especially in small dairy plants with lower raw sewage parameters in comparison to bigger plants. In the research, dairy wastewater after dissolved air flotation (DAF) process was treated with a laboratory scale research model Gunt CE701e which allows to control the basic parameters of the treatment with a trickling filter (TF). The conducted study included determining changing sewage parameters during the DAF process, as well as trickling filter (TF) efficiency. Such parameters as Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), total Organic Carbon (TOC), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and total phosphorous (TP) were checked. The research results confirmed the possibility of high efficiency treatment of dairy sewage with DAF and trickling filter technologies. The average efficiency of DAF treatment was 59.3% for BOD, 49.0% for COD and 80.0% for TP, while the average treatment efficiency of TF was 87.3%, 78.3% and 27.9% without recirculation and 95.2%, 85.5% and 42.0% with 100% recirculation applied, respectively. The load of TF during operation without recirculation was on average 0.22 kgBOD5∙m-3∙d-1 and 0.25 with 100% recirculation. Applying recirculation allowed to reach BOD, COD and total phosphorus standards for sewage discharged to a receiver from Bielmlek dairy WWTP. On the other hand, the concentration of total nitrogen exceeded the permitted standards in this facility.