Abstract

PARRA HUERTA, Ricardo Adolfo  and  CAMPOS MONTIEL, Rafael Germán. Evaluating the behavior of a UASB reactor with different organic loads from whey. Rev. P+L [online]. 2014, vol.9, n.1, pp.23-30. ISSN 1909-0455.

Introduction. Dairy industry is one of the most important sectors in industrialized and developing countries. Approximately 90% of the milk used in cheese industries is eliminated as whey (or lactoserum). Statistics indicate that lacto-serum or whey is discarded as an effluent and brings a serious environmental problem, due to the fact that it affects, physically and chemically, the soil's structure. This reduces the performance of crops and, when whey is disposed by being pouring it into water bodies, aquatic life is reduced because it drains the dissolved oxygen. Objective. Evaluate a UASB reactor by means of anaerobic digestion, using two organic loads of 3 g/L/day COD and 4 g/L/day COD. Materials and methods. Different laboratory analyses were performed on both loads: COD, protein, sugars,VFA, methane and ammonium. Results. The results indicated that the COD efficiency was above 65%; the sugars' degradation was total and the protein degradation was higher that 78%, while the ammonium, methane and VFA concentrations were all within the normal parameters for the reactor's correct work. Conclusion. The UASB reactor is a god option to treat waste water, as it contains whey in two different organic loads.

Keywords : lactoserum or whey; anaerobic digestion; degradation; UASB; reactor.

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