TREATMENT OF SLAUGHTERHOUSE EFFLUENT USING AN ANAEROBIC FILTER

A pilot-scale study was conducted to evaluate the treatment performance of an upflow anaerobic filter (AF) on a slaughter-house effluent. The effluent flow rate through the AF was changed for seven treatment trials, and performance was evaluated by the amount of COD removed. The COD removals ranged between 37% and 77% and were related to the reciprocal of the hydraulic retention time, in accordance with the Young and McCarty empirical model. The COD removals in this study were less in comparison to other similar AF studies, and factors attributed to this included low solids retention time and reactor design. The average removals of total coliforms, fecal coliforms, fecal streptococci, and standard plate count densities through the AF were 29%, 18%, 95%, and 65% respectively. The average methane content of the biogas was 71%. The methane yields ranged between 0.19 and 0.23 (m3 STP/kg COD removed). Tracer results showed that effluent flow through the AF was predominately completely mixed.