(580f) Treating Poultry Processing Wastewaters By Ultrafiltration

Commercial poultry processors use an average of 26.5 L of water per bird during processing of live birds to meat. It has been estimated that in 2007, US poultry processors slaughtered 8.9 × 10⁹ broilers, producing 16.0 × 10⁶ metric tons of ready-to-eat meat. Poultry processing water (PPW) is an example of an oily wastewater. These wastewaters contain large amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates from meat blood, skin and feathers. Before discharge, the majority of the soluble and organic particulate matter must be removed.

Use of membrane filtration to treat PPW is attractive as one can avoid the use of chemical additives as are often used in processes such as dissolved air flotation. In addition, appropriately selected membrane pore sizes can provide an absolute barrier to pathogens. In this study different ultrafiltration membranes were evaluated for treatment of PPW. Pretreatment of the feed wastewater is critical in order to suppress membrane fouling. Here pretreatment using electrocoagulation has been investigated.

Our results indicate that electrocoagulation followed by sedimentation could be a viable pretreatment technology prior to ultrafiltration. The evolution of the floc size distribution after sedimentation has been determined using laser diffraction particle sizing. Optimizing the sedimentation time is critical when developing a viable process. In this work we have investigated different sedimentation times. Flux decline, and rejection of a number of different ultrafiltration membranes in tangential flow filtration mode have been investigated. The BOD, COD, TDS in the feed, retentate and permeate have been determined. In addition membrane surface properties have been characterized using scanning electron microscopy, contact angle and zeta potential measurements. Membrane performance has been related to membrane surface properties. Finally the membranes were systematically cleaned and regenerated between runs. Our results indicate that while ultrafiltration is feasible for treating PPW.