Presentations 2016

CHARACTERIZATION AND TREATABILITY ASSESMENT OF ABATTOIR WASTEWATER USING ELEPHANT GRASS STALKS AS FILTER MEDIA

Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ibogun Campus, Ogun State Nigeria, West Africa.

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Wastewater generated and discharged by abattoirs are categorized as high strength with restricted pollutants exceeding standards set by regulating authorities. To avoid environmental degradation, these effluents requires pretreatment prior to their discharge into water bodies or alternative application (wastewater irrigation) as commonly practiced in some developing countries. The study was performed using three lab scale column reactors with elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) stalks as filter media in treating abattoir wastewater. The reactors (50cm height, 10cm diameter and a supportive gravel of 5cm depth at the bottom) with individual volume of 3.5L and working volume of 3.1L were constructed using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes. Elephant grass stalks were collected, pre-treated, characterized and cut to average length of 20mm-40mm. The reactors were fed with substrate at a constant flow rate of 0.00024m3/hr. with hydraulic retention times of 15hours, 30hours, 40hours and 60hours. The results obtained indicated a maximum average removal efficiency of 43.03% for BOD, 35.94% for soluble COD, 62.42% for protein and 63.33% for NH4+ after 60hours. The results revealed an increasing removal efficiency with time for all the parameters investigated except for pH with a slight improvement from an acidic value of 5.6 to a value of 6.1.The column reactors with elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) media achieved an increasingly stable performance; however, further research is recommended to investigate its long term application to determine its optimum life span and potential application in other wastewater stabilization.Key words: Degradation, Abattoir, Wastewater, Irrigation.