Dairy industry effluent treatment processes

Dairy industry wastewater is essentially composed of organic carbonaceous matter in soluble form (high concentrations of lactose, amino acids, small peptides, etc.). Treatment of this type of effluent therefore focuses primarily on carbon removal.

Given their excellent biodegradability, biological depollution processes play a predominant role in the treatment of wastewater from the dairy industry.

Physico-chemical processes for the complete treatment of dairy wastewater provide only very mediocre purification, as they essentially only remove suspended solids and very little soluble compounds. As a result, they are generally used as effluent pre-treatment at the head of a land application system or biological treatment plant. Depending on the treatment process selected, pretreatment may include: screening, grit removal, degreasing and a buffer...