Slaughterhouse water consumption and wastewater characteristics in the meat processing industry in serbia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the current state of slaughterhouses in Serbia regarding water consumption, wastewater flows and their characteristics, their current relationship with the environment and compare them with related plants in terms of wastewater qualities and concentrations of pollutants in them. The survey was conducted on a sample of 41 slaughterhouses. It has been concluded that a large number of slaughterhouses (24 of them) do not perform any wastewater treatment before their discharge into appropriate recipient and it is also concluded that the slaughterhouses that perform wastewater treatment generally do not reach the emission limit values of pollutants, which is confirmed by the results of physical and chemical testing. Slaughterhouses wastewater quality parameters were analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The average value of pH (7.24 ± 0.69) of discharged wastewater is within the allowed range, but the samples have higher chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand content (17 and 12 slaughterhouses exceeded the allowed limit values, respectively). total suspended solids (TSS) and fat, oil and greases (FOG) are mainly within allowed ranges, but there are some slaughterhouses that have higher values for TSS (six) and FOG (five) slaughterhouses exceeded the allowed limit values. TSS is extremely significant parameter because suspended solids can lead to the development of sludge deposits and anaerobic conditions when untreated wastewater is discharged in the aquatic environment.