Dairy Wastewater Effluents

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Dear All,

Does anyone have any success stories for dairy cheese whey effluent wastewater?

We already came up with some old renewed management solutions but they are complex and probably unsustainable in the long run (feed mix, collective treatment, land application...).

Curious if you can recommend a low cost (wetland) or packaged treatment ideal for small to medium scale industries would be highly appreciated!  and yes its high strength pollution of variable whey effluent types!

Many thanks!

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20 Answers

  3. Following our discussion, I think necessary to clarify some points.

    Whey come from cheese production and it’s the residual liquid after the cheese coagulation.

    Whey is rich in lactose and very poor in fat and nitrogen. Lactose is very soluble sugar so the DAF efficiencies is very low.

    For me whey is one natural biological bomb, the COD is around 70000 mg/l and lactose is very easily and quickly biodegraded, in few hours whey become acidic and very bad smelling.

    The productions of fresh and UHT milk, yogurt and ice cream are not producing whey and for this kind of activities or cheese factory, with total whey separation,  I designed many plants with equalization tank, DAF as primary treatment, aerobic biological reactor and final DAF instead settling tank because the frequency of bulking phenomena is very high.

    Whey is another story, just to give an idea consider that 1m3 of whey has the same pollution load of 200 m3 of municipal wastewater.

    Traditionally whey is used as animal food but the quantity used is low because can create gastro-intestinal problem.

    I used whey as carbon source for denitrification or to feed, after appropriate nutrient balance, wastewater biological plant without influent for vacation, maintenance or temporary suspension of industrial production, but of course, this cannot be the normal solution.

    Anaerobic digestion for biogas production is very interesting but the turbulence created into the reactor by very high gas production is very problematic.

    Aerobic treatment is out of discussion for the energy consumption for aeration and for the chemical cost of nitrogen and phosphorus necessary to balance the water.

    I repeat the production of powder whey is one very interesting solution, the investment cost is high but powder whey normally has a good market.

  4. Mr. Hawwa,

    I would like to suggest another approach. Before treating the whey as wastewater, try to evaluate the possibility of its recovery as a product, which could be used in your local market.

    http://dairyprocessinghandbook.com/chapter/whey-processing

    https://www.mega.cz/dairy/

    If it is considered that this approach is not economically feasible due to the local conditions of absorption of this by-product, another option is to treat it with anaerobic reactors so that you can recover energy in the form of biogas, which could be used as an energy source for your company.

  6. I agree with Mr. Narakhetudomsak that a DAF to remove fats and an aeration pond with good aeration will work well. Adding microbial cultures with good degradation of dairy wastewater would be very helpful and if required a constructed wetlands could be used for polishing.

  7. Baswood offers sustainable wastewater solutions for dairies. Take a look at the attached and email me (info@baswood.com) if you have any questions or would like to learn more.

  8. We have information from lab scale trials that a combination of microbes and microalgae does this job very well. 

    We would be putting up such a plant in the near future in India.

    1 Comment

    1. Hello Shukla. Would you like collaborating on this? We can maybe set up a similar trial in Lebanon then share expereinces and results

      drop me a line if you think this is interesting or if you can already share some baseline information about this?

      many thanks

      Hussam

  9. I should have said in my answer that whey is a product, which has a value, so it should be concentrated either by evaporation or using membranes, then the water from that can be treated.

     

  10. We had experience in dairy cheese wastewater in Thailand that they produced the ice cream Swensen. We use the DAF and aeration pond for this plant.

  11. Amiad Water Systems has successful installations for this application with our Tequatic Plus filter.  See attached brochure for details or review it at www.amiadusa.com.  To move forward we would require a particle sizing distribution analysis.

    Thanks,

    Eric Peterson

    2 Comments

    1. Dear Eric, can we get more specifiations and cost of the item/model? thank you

    2. Dear Eric, many thanks this interesting indeed. however I presume it needs further treatment is required to reach standards. Please send me an email or skype to discuss

      Regards,

      Hussam

      hussam@difafwater.com

      Skype: hussamhawwa

  12. Mr Hussan,

    There are some differences between whey from cheese production or from Ricotta cheese production and from cow or sheep milk origin, in any case whey is basically composed by lactose with extremely high COD concentration.

    The physic-chemical treatment is very expensive with very low efficiencies (50%), biological aerobic treatment is again very expensive and very difficult to manage. I made some experience with anaerobic treatment with good result but the management was difficult and in any case was necessary to have one final aerobic treatment.

    I think that the best solution is to separate the whey from the wastewater and to produce whey powder and to sell it.

    1 Comment

    1. Dear Vincenzo,

       

      Thank you for this. What you say confirms most of my conclusions. Can we discuss this further? 

      BEst

      Hussam

  13. Dear Hussam Hawwa,

    It's easy to treat by dissolved air flotation. We'd experience here Thailand so if you need a cheap price system and works, contact me please.

    1 Comment

  14. We have equipment that can clean waste water of any organic material and make it potable. Cost depends on the flow or amount to be treated and the contents found by analysis. It is possible to make one machine treat more than one pollution by selecting programs built in to the equipment.

    Please email me for further information office@gictechs.com

  15. Greetings Mr Hussam Hawwa,

    We offer solutions to dairy effluents from small dairy farms/factories to large international factories. Treatment reduces nutrients, odour, FOG etc. You are welcome to email me dave@makroorganics.com for more information.

    Regards

    Dave

  16. I am not specialized in elfuent, but, from my experience to Greek dairies, the good solution is protein removal using UF (ultrafiltration) which will have a high investment cost, but really low efluent contamination. You could also take into account the benefit of selling the protein which produced.

    2 Comments

    2. Thank you Apostolos. Indeed a consideration..would you have a supplier who has a good track record and is reasonable in pricing? many thanks

  17. I have worked with whey effluent at several sites.  Unless there is a high wastage of whey, AD isn't the solution because you will end up feeding it just to make the plant work and end up with phosphate and ammonia  as a waste to get rid of.  Aerobic activated sludge removes the majority of the COD.  If it is designed correctly using fine-bubble aeration, the phosphate is reduced to low levels.  Ammonia oxidising bacteria require fully aerobic conditions and a source of bicarbonate but they will convert ammonia, produced by the breakdown products of whey protein, into nitrate, which the other bacteria will use for growth.

    1 Comment

    1. Thank you Don, yes the issue is that the effluent whey is variable depending on producer and production. AD is being considered for co-digestion with manure only. Would you have a case study with activated sludge financials for CAPEX / OPEX that you can share? Need some rough figures because we are considering all options. Best

       

  18. By all means. CO2 pH stabilizing as a "simple" approach. Anaerobic digestion producing fertilizer & energy as a total solution. That is not as expensive at it may look at first. You simply have to want it. We do such things. I´m here if you need me. miguel.smurawski@ssgaslabasia.com Regards

    1 Comment

    1. Dear Miguel, interesting. Can you define who is you? any website? I am looking for total solution, for AD can be UASB or biogas to propose in out feasiblity of different solutions. as we have to meet harsh environmental standards imposed by government.

      Thank you hope to hear from you

  19. Yes, I know someone who can sort you out with answers and has experience of fixing this elsewhere. Please mail me or private message here

     

    best wishes Steve