Suspended Solids from Industrial and Municipal Origins

Abstract

The origins of suspended solids are the effluents of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants and storm sewage treatment. This paper deals with the sources of industrial and municipal wastewater treatment and the single treatment of side streams. An overview of the common treatment processes is given and the main sinks for suspended solids are named and described. The food industry is based on the processing of organic matter (fruits, etc.). During the single processing steps three main fractions occur, inorganic material (e.g., from the washing step), organic residues (e.g., the peel), and suspended solids (SS) in the wastewater. Today higher rates of recycling (water and raw materials) can be found in all kinds of industrial processes. The principle is that avoidance should take precedence over utilization which should take precedence over disposal. Numerous possibilities of production-integrated measures exist, e.g., conveyance of production circuits, product recovery, and stepped cleaning. Despite and/or due to these efforts, huge amounts of residues occur. They are the main sink for suspended solids. Only seldom is landfilling used to treat these residues. Usually utilization as animal nourishment or biological (aerobic or anaerobic) or thermal (incineration) treatment methods are used. Huge capacities for a codigestion of agroindustrial residues (substrates) and wastewater sludge can be found in municipal digesters. As most of the food processing factories are indirect dischargers, the largest amount of the SS fraction in the wastewater is led to municipal wastewater treatment plants. Rarely, a connection between the SS concentrations in the influent and those in the effluent can be observed in conventional wastewater treatment. As a polishing step, filtration methods gain more and more importance with regard to suspended solids removal.