Tratamento anaeróbio em escala piloto de efluente de beneficiamento do soro do leite

Abstract

Whey is a by-product of the dairy industries that stands out for its nutritional value, in particular it can be processed and adding value in the form of new food products, through the processing processes. In these processes, the generation of effluent occurs, which has characteristics harmful to the environment, as it has a high amount of organic matter concentrated in the dissolved fraction. The conventional methods used by the dairy industries have difficulties in treating this type of effluent. Therefore, it is necessary that this effluent undergoes adequate treatment before being released into water resources. The anaerobic digestion process stands out as an alternative for the treatment of this effluent, considering that it presents good results in the treatment of effluents with high concentrations of dissolved organic load, and presents advantages over other technologies, such as not using chemicals, being easy to operate and generate little sludge. The present work aimed at the development and application of anaerobic methods as an alternative to the treatment of effluent from the processing of whey, seeking to evaluate the efficiency of the treatment for COD removal, as well as to obtain optimal operating parameters. For this, an anaerobic reactor of 38.6 liters was used that operated in batches of 10 days, varying the temperature of the effluent in 15, 25 and 35ºC, with recirculation of the biomass 10 times a day with 15 min each. The results obtained showed 94% removal of COD in 10 days of treatment. Temperature had a positive effect on the efficiency of anaerobic digestion. The biogas generated in the treatment showed 82% of methane production, indicating that anaerobic digestion is efficient for removing organic matter and producing renewable energy. Keywords: