Potential Use of Locally Available Filter Media in a UAFB Reactor Coupled with Natural Treatment in Soybean Industry Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Many food industries in developing countries cannot afford proper wastewater treatment and directly discharge their wastewater into surface water bodies causing several problems such as aesthetical, health and environmental problems. A new approach for low-cost wastewater treatment which is reliable, allows nutrients and energy recovery should be promoted. One of the alternative wastewater treatment technologies is anaerobic wastewater treatment which offers a number of advantages such as low energy requirement, low production of sludge and the possibility of energy recovery. As one of the disadvantages of using anaerobic method is that the effluent usually does not meet the authority’s regulation to be discharged directly into water bodies, to further treat the effluent in order to meet the standard, the up flow anaerobic fixed-bed reactor will be coupled with a ‘natural treatment’. This paper presents preliminary results of a research which has the main goal to examine the of several locally available materials as packing media in UAFB reactor and the appropriate vegetations for constructed wetland and/or macrophyte pond. Additionally, potential energy recovery from soybean wastewater is also calculated.