A study of the waters of turkey processing : utilization patterns, chemical and physical properties, wastewater treatment efficiency

Abstract

Research evaluating the characteristics of turkey processing wastewaters was conducted in three phases. The first phase evaluated wastewater discharged over a 24 hour period. Final plant effluent samples were taken at hourly intervals and analyzed for contaminant concentrations. Concurrent with sample collection, hydraulic volume discharge was measured. The concentration and mass of contaminants discharged during processing (7:00 am-3:00 pm), cleanup (4:00 pm-11:00 pm) and downtime (12:00 pm-6:00 am) were evaluated. Significant increases in contaminant concentrations were attributed to plant cleanup during the morning break and initial plant cleanup after the day's processing. Processing and cleanup discharged wastewasters with like contaminant concentrations. However, both discharged more highly contaminated effluents than did downtime. Processing discharged about 70% of the contaminant mass, cleanup about 22% and downtime about 8%. The second phase of this study evaluated contaminant concentrations and pollutant mass discharged by nine process functions. Viscera truck drain wastewater was found to be most contaminated. High concentrations of grease were discharged by gizzard cleaning. Uncollected blood contributed to the high effluent strength of killroom wastewater. High contaminant concentrations discharged by further processing were attributed to cooker-smoker washdown. Contaminant concentrations discharged by the other five process functions were significantly less than those four discharging highly contaminated wastewaters. Phase three evaluated the physical-chemical properties of wastewaters discharged from feather flowaway, gizzard cleaning, viscera truck drain and the processing operation by fractionating each wastewater into settleable, suspended, colloidal and soluble fractions and analyzing contaminant concentrations of each fraction. Gizzard cleaning wastewater contained high grease concentrations in the settleable and suspended fractions. Blood in the soluble fraction was the primary contaminant in feather flowaway wastewater. Pollutant concentrations in highly contaminated viscera truck drain wastewater was equally distributed in each fraction. Processing operation wastewater contained low contaminant concentrations in each fraction. Treatment of each wastewater by feather filtration, electrostatic precipitation and dissolved air flotation reduced contaminants in the settleable and suspended fractions. No treatment evaluated reduced soluble contaminant concentrations.