Combined biological treatment of high‐sulphate wastewater from yeast production

Abstract

AbstractThe wastewater from baker's yeast production contains above‐average concentrations of organic pollutants (25 000 mg/L total chemical oxygen demand, TCOD), nutrients (1500 mg/L Ntot, 100 mg/L Ptot) and sulphate (2900 mg/L SO42−). Baker's yeast wastewater with a flow rate of 190 m3/day was treated in a mesophilic anaerobic/anoxic continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) system. At the expense of the reduction of trimethylglycine (or betaine‐component of sugar‐beet molasses) to other nitrogen‐containing compounds, it was possible to re‐oxidize the sulphides to elemental sulphur, remove them from the wastewater and increase biogas production. Therefore, the average removal efficiency in the anaerobic/anoxic system was 79% by TCOD, 100% by SO42− in which the concentration of sulphides in the effluent did not exceed 50 mg/L. The application of this combined anaerobic/anoxic system to a full‐scale treatment plant supported biogas production up to 1300 m3/day, and the purification of wastewater was feasible without the use of granular sludge.