INVESTIGATING TREATABILITY OF ABATTOIR WASTEWATER USING AN ANAEROBIC BAFFLED REACTOR
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Date
2018-06-26Author
Kuany, Charles Ngor
Mugowa, Ashraf Ceaser
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The study was carried out at the Kampala City Abattoir located in Industrial Area, Kampala,
Uganda. The abattoir has many activities that generate large amounts of waste both solid and
liquid. The solid waste is managed by kip clean, it’s a solid waste management company that
collects the solid waste every morning from the abattoir. On the other hand, the liquid waste
generated is not treated and it is discharged off to Nakivubo channel directly.
In order to pave way for the treatment of abattoir wastewater, this study was carried out to: measure
the daily flow variations, to characterize the wastewater as to determine the pollution load and to
investigate the performance of the Anaerobic Baffled Reactor in treating the wastewater from the
abattoir. The study was carried out from September 2017 to May 2018 Wastewater samples were
taken from the discharge channel for examination of wastewater parameters. Five days (six hours
a day) flow measurement estimated the daily flow rate at the abattoir as 210m3/day as shown in
figure 10. The wastewater parameter analysis was done from the Public Health laboratory in
Makerere University, the examination revealed that the effluent from Kampala City Abattoir was
of high strength. This is shown in the proceeding table 2; (means±SD, n=16), COD, 8063.7±332.4
mg/l; BOD5, 5265.7±355.5 mg/l; TSS, 4733.5±193.3 mg/l; Turbidity, 6568.5±327.8 NTU; TKN,
677.1±81.7 mg/l; pH, 7.9±0.2; TP, 23.3±0.4 mg/l.
The pollutant concentrations are much higher than the discharge standards set by the National
Environment Management Authority (NEMA). The effluent has a negative impact on the
environment and the treatment plant where it is discharged, mostly because it increases the
treatment load. This calls for an urgent intervention as the final recipient Lake Victoria is the most
affected by these pollutants.
The study focused on using a lab scale anaerobic baffle reactors (ABR) to treat the effluent from
the abattoir. The anaerobic baffled reactor was made of glass of thickness of 5 mm, divided into
five compartments. The first compartment has double volume compared to the remaining
compartments. Dimension of the first compartment is 15 cm x 10 cm x 38 cm (width x length x
height - inner face of tank), while the second compartment to the fifth compartment sized 15 cm x
5 cm x 38 cm. The reactor then set up in the Makerere University Public Health Laboratory.
Slaughterhouse wastewater of 20L samples were taken at the discharge channel of the abattoir of concentration COD 15160 mg/l, BOD5 10157.20 mg/l, TKN 750 mg/l, TP 35.68 mg/l, TSS 8528
mg/l, Turbidity 28,500 NTU, Color 45,450 Platinum/cobalt and pH 8.57 fed into the setup ABR.
The results revealed that reactor had a higher efficiency to treat the slaughterhouse wastewater. Up
to 83% and 82% of COD and BOD respectively, 95% of TSS, 7% and 10% of TKN and TP
respectively, removal was obtained for the same effluent concentration respectively. Comparison
was done on the effluent quality from the ABR with the recommended National Environment
Management Authority (NEMA) guidelines and was found out not to be within the range of
NEMA standard. The study recommended further treatment before disposing off to the
environment.