Poultry Effluent Waste Treatment

Case Study

Poultry Effluent Waste Treatment – A large UK poultry processor was investigating alternative ways to treat their poultry waste and wastewater lagoons to aid the safe discharge of effluent.

The previous procedure involved spreading the poultry effluent on land specifically set-aside for this purpose. The wastewater in the lagoons was an unavoidable by-product of the cleaning process at the poultry farms. After a six week growing period (a crop), there was an interval of two weeks during which time the poultry houses were washed and disinfected. The cleaning procedure was essential to raising and maintaining healthy poultry flocks.

The lagoon water at this site generally contained high levels of solids from the bedding, small amounts of feed and manure, detergents and disinfectants. It was the combination of high Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), solid matter and very high ammonia (NH3) that had made previous treatments unsuccessful.

Typically the BOD of fresh washings can vary from 450-1100ppm, the suspended solids (SS) 500-1200ppm and NH3 from 100-200ppm. For discharge to water courses the standard is generally, less than 30ppm BOD, 50ppm SS and less than 5ppm NH3 (the actual figures vary depending upon the situation). After treatment using specialist BioTreat formulations the lagoon water quality was brought well within the standards for discharge (see Table 1.) and consent sought from the UK’s Environment Agency.

Table 1.

Additional Information

For additional information please contact BioTreat info@biotreat.co.uk .