Biological Treatment for the Industrial

Wastewater of Food :
Types - General characteristics
:‫المعالجه البيولوجية لمياه الصرف الصناعي لألغذية‬
‫االنواع – الخصائص العامه‬

Dr. Aml Elnawawy - Researcher

Project Co-PI
Food technology research Institute(FTRI),
Agriculture Research Center (ARC).
 The commonly used biological
wastewater treatment techniques
The organisms related to wastewater treatment :
 Aerobic treatment

Biological Anaerobic treatment

treatment Facultative treatment

Nitrification-Denitrification
Immobilized Microbial enzymes
Dephosphorization

Oxidation
 biological wastewater treatment
Systems
to remove organic matter from wastewater

1. Dispersed / suspended 2. Attached growth

growth system system

Activated Extended Rotating

biological Constructed Membrane
sludge aeration Trickling wetland bioreactors
contactor
technology system filters (RBC) system (MBRs)
system
 1. Dispersed / suspended growth system

Biomass grows in suspended / dispersed form in liquid medium

without any attachment to the surface.

M.O. biomass absorb organic matter& nutrients,….allows them

to grow and reproduce to form microcolonies.

microcolonies settle as sludge, then :

- either removed
- or treated in a sludge treatment process
- or resuspended

reactor volume and retention time are directly

related to each other
Conventional Activated sludge process (CASP)
The most commonly used in industrialized countries for the removal
of biological solids by sedimentation
- comprise a multichamber reactor unit
- Constant supply of oxygen is required
- The free microbial cells oxidize the organic carbon in wastewater
to produce CO2, water and new cells that form small flocs

Food Chain in Activated Sludge

Advantages
- High reduction of BOD and pathogens (up to 99% ) at after the secondary treatment
- High effluent quality
- Little land required compared to extensive natural system (ex. stabilization ponds)

Disadvantages

- Poor settling of the solid pollutants increased solid treatment costs

increased effluent solid conc’s decreased disinfection
efficiencies low biomass conc increased risks to downstream
ecosystems and public health.
- High energy consumption & constant source of energy is required
- Requires operation and maintenance by skilled persons
- Contains chemical and microbiological problems
- Sludge require further treatment and appropriate discharge
 Extended aeration system
(modified activated sludge process)

the sewage is aerated for a minimum of 24 h this resulted in :

- complete digestion of all solids
- there is no need for a primary settling tank as organic solids are
allowed to settle in the aeration tank due to their long detention
time.
- there is no need for a separate sludge digester
- high oxygen transfer efficiency, absence of odor, less sludge
yield
- ease of construction as well as operation

Disadvantages:
The extended aeration plants do not achieve denitrification & dephosphorelation
without additional unit processes.
2. Attached growth system

Trickling filters (TFs)

DESCRIPTION :
- aerobic treatment system
- The filter vessels packed with inert media such as : rocks, coke, lava, gravel,
polyurethane foam, ceramic) As the wastewater flows over the medium, MO'
already in the water gradually attach themselves to the and form a film.
- The biological film or slime layer (approximately 0.1 to 0.2 mm thick) is formed by
aerobic, anaerobic, and facultative bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa
- As the wastewater flows over the medium, microorganisms already in the water
gradually attach themselves to the media and form a film.; the organic material is then
degraded by the aerobic MO’s in the outer part of the slime layer.
- As the layer thickens through microbial growth, oxygen cannot penetrate the medium
face, and anaerobic organisms develop.
- As the biological film continues to grow, the MO’s near the surface lose their ability to
cling to the medium and a portion of the slime layer falls off the filter.
Advantages

- suitable for small to mediums sized communities with a high filter loading rate
- marked by their ease of operation.
- self-cleaning capacity.
- efficient removal of ammonia.
- low constriction and maintenance coast compared with CAS
- Easy maintenance without the return of the sludge.

Disadvantages

- Outbreak of filter fly and/ or odor problems.

- Snail problems
- - poor transparency of the treated water
Rotating biological contactor (RBC) system
DESCRIPTION :
- an efficient attached growth system that purifies wastewater from different industries
such as food and beverage, refinery and petrochemical, pulp and paper industries;
beside purifying domestic wastewater, landfill leachate and lagoon effluent.
- The system consists of biomass media usually plastic (polyethylene, polyvinyl
chloride [PVC] and expanded polystyrene), that are partially immersed in
wastewater.
- upon its slowly rotating, it lifts a film of wastewater into the air; the
wastewater trickles down across the media and absorbs oxygen from the air
provided by the rotating action.
- The biofilm attached to the discs assimilates the organic materials and nutrients in
the wastewater.
- The excess biomass sloughs off the discs by shearing forces exerted with disc
rotation and gravitational force is then removed from clear water through a
conventional clarification process.
Advantages
- Low operating coast
- Low sludge generation
- Easy maintenance without the return of the sludge
- less space requirement
- high effluent quality with regard to both biological oxygen demand (BOD)
and nutrients

Disadvantages

- Poor transparency of the treated water

- Required discharge device as the peeled biofilm doesn’t accumulate in the
contact tank.
Membrane bioreactors (MBRs)
DESCRIPTION :
- Used for domestic /industrial wastewater treatment, It is a combination
of a suspended growth treatment method with membrane filtration
equipped with low-pressure microfiltration (MF)
or ultrafiltration (UF) membranes.

- The membrane is simply a two-dimensional material used to separate

components of fluids usually on the basis of their relative size
or electrical charge.

The major advantage of MBRs :

they allow high conc's of mixed liquor suspended solids with low sludge
production, increased removal efficiencies of BOD and COD, water
reclamation, reduced footprints and no further polishing requirement for
disinfection/clarification.
 Constructed wetland system

Surface flow wetland

Sub-surface flow wetland
Typically Anaerobic wastewater Treatment
Reactor
Facultative Treatment
Ex. Stabilization Pond
The main bacterial effective bacterial strains in
wastewater treatment

Aerobic Anaerobic Facultative

 In general,
microbial
pathogens
in wastewater
includes:
Eco-friendly Green Technologies
for Wastewater Treatment
 Phycoremediation of heavy metals in water and
wastewater treatment

phycoremediation is The use of algal species for the removal of heavy

metals (e.g., Ni, Cd, Cu, As, Hg, and Pb) as well as other contaminants like
dyes, pesticides, nutrients, ions and metal nanoparticles from
water and wastewater….
it is an eco-friendly, ecologically sound and a value-added tool.

The common algal species which are being used for

phycoremediation are Chlorella, Scenedesmus, Oscillatoria,
Lyngbya, Gloeocapsa, Spirulina, Chroococcus, Synechocystis, and
Anabaena.

The use of algae for the removal of pollutants also

helps in: C-sequestration and biofuel production.
• Heavy metals are toxic to human, animals and plants:

After getting into the environment, the contaminants can be consumed or

absorbed by primary consumers that sequentially enter the food chain and
get bioaccumulated and then biomagnified at successive trophic levels

• Sources of Heavy Metals in the environment:

Biological treatment by Immobilization
of Microbial Enzymes
Microbial communities in wastewater
(case study: Olive mil effluents )
Bacterial Diversity in Olive Mill Wastes

The OMW pathogenic bacteria are

originated from:
- soil and freshwater environments (such
as: Actinobacteria, Staphylococcus spp.,
Enterobacter loacae (this strains were
detected in the raw effluent))

- fermentative members of Bacteria, such

as lactic acid (e.g:spp.) and acetic acid
(e.g.:Acetobacter spp.) were exist
- while fecal bacteria have been also
identified such as Coliforms
(e.g. Escherichia and Klebsiella)
 The major microbiota in the OMW consists from
different bacterial and fungal strains :

Distribution of bacterial Distribution of fungal

phylotypes identified in olive phylotypes identified in olive
mill waste environment mill waste environment
 Microbial Community Structure in Bioreactor Systems Treating
Olive Mill Wastes

An example on the OMW used bioreactors :

anaerobic acidogenesis packed-bed biofilm
reactors (supported with either granular activated
carbon or ceramic cubes).
- An acidogenic biofilm will develop on the
granular activated carbon by the aciophilic
communities; while ceramic cubes favored the
biofilm formation from Bacillus, Clostridium,
Paenibacillus and Pasteuriaceae strains.
- The dominance of Lactobacillus and
Acetobacter spp. in the OMW indicated that
olive mill effluent was naturally fermented
during storage.
TEMPO system
Mini-VIDAS
The technique based on:
The Enzyme Linked Fluorescent Assay (ELFA)
Water Testing Device

- Coliform and E. coli Testing

- Pseudomonas aeruginosa Testing
- Heterotrophic Plate Count/Total Viable Count Testing

the technique depend on an Enzyme-specific substrate

which use as indicator
TEMPO

The TEMPO technique based on

The main difference between the MPN and CFU is that:
MPN : estimates the conc. of microorganisms by growing them in a liquid broth
CFU : (Colony Forming Unit) estimates the number of viable microorganisms
by growing them in a solid agar.