Abstract
A large dairy farm located on the island of Oahu, Hawaii was the site for an investigation for the potential integration of the existing facultative lagoon system with a cost effective pretreatment unit process. Based on the results from a laboratory study, a pilot plant was installed with two anaerobic bioreactors (10 m³ each) and one aerobic reactor (3.8 m³). Two layers of media “Bio-nest,” providing a void volume of 98%, were placed into each anaerobic bioreactor with 19% space-based on the bioreactor water volume. For better performance and reduction of shock-load, the equalization/settling tank was employed prior to the first anaerobic Bio-nest reactor. The intermediate holding tank settled effluent suspended solids from the Bio-nest reactor and adjusted the loading rate in order to improve the performance of the aerobic EMMC (entrapped mixed microbial cell) bioreactors. Based on the start-up operation of the Bio-nest system at an organic loading rate of about 1.5 g TCOD/l/day, the production rate of biogas from the first and second Bio-nest reactors was 0.64 and 0.15 l/l/day, respectively. This indicates that the anaerobic degradation of organics occurs mainly in the first Bio-nest reactor due to the low loading rate. The removal efficiency from the Bio-nest system shows TCOD removal of about 70%. The EMMC process provided further treatment to achieve a removal efficiency of TCOD at about 50% and a TN of about 35%. The cost for these pretreatments in order to be integrated with the existing lagoon system is US $1.1 per 1,000 gallons (3.8 m³) for dairy wastewater and $91 for each ton of TCOD removal. This integration system provides a sustainable improvement of environment and agricultural production.
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Notes
\({\text{OLR}} = {\raise0.7ex\hbox{${[{\text{COD}}]_{{{\text{in}}}} }$} \!\mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{[{\text{COD}}]_{{{\text{in}}}} } {{\text{HRT}}}}}\right.\kern-\nulldelimiterspace} \!\lower0.7ex\hbox{${{\text{HRT}}}$}}\)
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the funding provided by a grant from the Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture Research (T-STAR) program, USDA.
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Kongsil, P., Irvine, J.L. & Yang, P.Y. Integrating an anaerobic Bio-nest and an aerobic EMMC process as pretreatment of dairy wastewater for reuse: a pilot plant study. Clean Techn Environ Policy 12, 301–311 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-009-0211-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-009-0211-x