Advanced Treatment of Meat Processing Wastewaters Using Microalgae

Abstract

Introduction: Effluents of Meat processing are one of the untreated wastewaters containing high volumes of polluted components even after the primary and secondary treatments. The high cost of using the advanced treatment methods of the wastewaters has led the industry owners to release them in the nature without effective removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. In this study, an economic advanced method was presented for the first time for the treatment of meat processing effluents by producing valuable biomass.

Methods: The recovery of wastewater components was studied for the growth of two profitable strains of Chlorella and Scenedesmus in three variations: real wastewater, normalized wastewater, and normalized wastewater with trace elements. The concentration of nitrate, ammonia, and phosphate was analyzed during the growth period.

Results: Experimental data showed that normalized wastewater increased biological removal up to %78 in Scenedesmus and 64% in Chlorella. In addition, normalized wastewater containing trace elements increased biological removal up to %93 in Scenedesmus and 95% in Chlorella. The addition of phosphates reduced pH fluctuations and worked as a buffer.

Conclusion: The meat wastewaters processing can provide a rich culture medium for cultivation of microalgae. The results of this research can present a novel promising and economic alternative way to remove nutrient pollutions in meat wastewaters processing.