The impact of high biodegradable COD fraction in poultry processing wastewater to SBR performance

Abstract

The present study investigates the impact of high biodegradable COD fraction in poultry processing wastewater on the performance of lab-scale SBR. The SBR's reactor was operated under 3 phases with different airflow rates namely 2.5 L/min, 5.0L/min, and 7.0L/min; and each phase would have a constant 21days of Sludge Retention Time (SRT). The sample of poultry processing wastewater consists of 84.06% of biodegradable components and 15.94% of the non-biodegradable component. It was observed that high readily biodegradable soluble COD (rbsCOD) had caused a rapid bacteria's metabolism to consume nutrient as fast as possible which consequently tuned the COD removal efficiency from 85.0% to 92.9% and increased the SVI from 51.66 mL/g to 66.96mL/g (2nd phase) and 110.1 mL/g (3rd Phase). The removal efficiency of Ammonia Nitrogen and Total Suspended Solid was observed in the range from 69.3% to 81.2%, and 61.8% to 81.7% respectively. The fluctuation of the biodegradable COD component in poultry processing wastewater was observed to affect the oxygen demand, where the oxygen transfer efficiency dropped from 3.82% to 0.63% as the airflow rate increase from 2.5L/min to 7.0L/min along with the increase of biodegradable COD fraction. Hence, this experiment provides a clear perspective of poultry processing wastewater behavior to SBR performance.