Novel Treatment of Sugar Mill Wastewater in a Coupled System of Aged Refuse Filled Bioreactors (ARFB): Full-Scale

• Published in: Processes Vol. 9; no. 3; p. 516
• Main Authors: Gutiérrez-Hernández, Rubén Fernando, Nájera-Aguilar, Hugo Alejandro, Araiza-Aguilar, Juan Antonio, Martínez-Salinas, Rebeca Isabel, García-Lara, Carlos Manuel, González-Vázquez, Ulises, Cruz-Salomón, Abumalé
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2021
• ISSN: 2227-9717; 2227-9717
• DOI: 10.3390/pr9030516

Sugar is the most important food supplement of our daily diet. During the production, sugar mills use a large volume of water and produce a significant amount of wastewater polluted with high organic compounds. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the wastewater before their disposal. For this reason, this article presents the results obtained from the monitoring of a coupled system of aged refuse filled bioreactors (ARFB) in full scale to treat wastewater from a sugar mill. The coupled system consists of two bioreactors (a primary one -ARFB1- and a rectification one -ARFB2-) arranged in a series with identical geometries. The ARFB1-ARFB2 system was evaluated in two stages. The first stage (maintenance period) for 28 weeks, and second stage (Zafra season) for 29 weeks. The system was fed with sugar mill wastewater (SMW) with a chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 2787 ± 1552 mg/L and 2601 ± 722 mg/L, respectively. As results, we observed a rapid stabilization of the system over 2 months. In addition, we found the ARFB1-ARFB2 system achieved an average COD removal of 94.9%, with a final effluent (E2) concentration below the maximum permissible limits of Mexican and international regulations for all analyzed parameters. Finally, the results of this study show that the ARFB1-ARFB2 full-scale novel technology is an efficient process for removal of the main contaminants that affect the wastewater from the sugar mills.