Biological treatment is the most efficient method to treat DWW (Lohani et al. 2016). It includes processes like activated sludge (Al-wasify, et al 2017), (Schwarzenbeck,et al 2005) trickling filter (Birwal 2017), aerated lagoons (Lateef, et al 2013), up flow anaerobic sludge blanket (Lomte et al 2018),(Samadi, et al 2017),(Tawfik, et al 2008)sequential batch reactor (Neczaj et al. 2008) etc. This process help in removing the organic materials present in wastewater (Carvalho, et al 2013a). This treatment method uses microbes to treat toxic chemicals, and high organic loading in wastewater. It is basically divided into two categories according to their oxygen requirement- aerobic, and anaerobic process. In presence of oxygen the microbes decompose organic compounds which is called as aerobic method (Janet Joshiba et al. 2019). The two factors that is responsible for the success of biological treatment such as the ability of microorganisms present in the treatment unit to decompose the organic matter present in the wastewater, and at the last phase of treatment the competence of solid-liquid detachment of the biomass (Schwarzenbeck, et al 2005). The effluents of dairy industry contain fats, proteins, lactose, BOD, COD, and other compounds which can be reduced by biological treatment. It is a cost effective method (Abdulgader et al. 2009).
3.3.1 Aerobic treatment
The aerobic treatment of DWW is used to remove BOD and phosphorus and nitrogen are used for the reduction of organic supplements like P and N present in waste water (Janet Joshiba et al. 2019). In this process the water from industry in presence of oxygen is subjected to oxidation reaction which leads to reduce harmful microbes present in DWW (Janet Joshiba et al. 2019). This is a high challenging treatment which occurs only in presence of air and microorganisms use this oxygen to adapt organic contents, and which are then transformed to biomass, CO2, H2O (Janet Joshiba et al. 2019), (Shete,et al 2013). The two main processes of biological treatment is attached growth or biofilm process, suspended growth process. In theprocess of suspended growth the organic matter is degraded in the presence of oxygen by microorganisms(Wang, et al 2009). Normally all the compounds present in dairy waste water are easily degradable except the proteins and fats (Omil et al. 2003). Because of the presence of high organic content in the dairy waste water biological treatment is best suited treatment (Gutiérrez, et al 1991).
The treatment of wastewater with biofilm has various benefits as compared with suspended growth process, due to its operational flexibility, increases reaction rate, require less space (Andersson 2009). The growth and formation of biofilm to the surface of bio carrier is a complex process in bio-filtration. The attachment strength depends upon the properties of media surface, conditions of environment, characteristics of water, type of microbes. The growth of biomass will be continuous until the loss of biomass by sloughing and decay. In case of rich substrate condition the biofilm grows and accumulates in a faster rate than the detachment rate but in case of low substrate condition the biofilm growth rate is balanced by sloughing.(“Waste Water Treatment Technologies - Volume I - Google Books,” n.d.), (Holá, et al 2006). The moving bed system contains all biofilm processes, which has continuous moving media. This continuous moving media can be maintained by velocity of water, high air, and mechanical stirring (Rodgers et al 2003). The selection of bio-carrier media for the treatment is based on density, size, porosity, and erosion resistant (Christensson et al 2004), (Ødegaard, et al 2000).
Aerated lagoons are the best technologies practiced to treat dairy waste water and it work efficiently and easy to reduce organic and inorganic loading from dairy effluent (Renou et al. 2008). According to the type of wastewater the aerated lagoons can be worked both in aerobic and anaerobic process (“Books @ Www.Google.Co.In,” n.d.). In many developing nations the aerated lagoons are suitable to treat wastewater from dairy industry due to its efficient activity and economically effective (Janet Joshiba et al. 2019). A number of bacteria involved in this process to convert the complicated organic and inorganic compounds to simple compounds (Moura et al. 2009). Aerated lagoons are designed and its functioning depends upon different parameters of microorganisms like their structure, nutrient uptake, morphology, type. Temperature is the most important factor to be considered due of its major impact on the metabolism of microorganisms (Renou et al. 2008). To enhance the treatment process many new advancement had been implemented in this process for efficient removal of toxic pollutant in the effluent. Water hyacinth and duckweed are some of the aquatic plants are used in the treatment process for reducing high amount of nutrients and organic contents (P. Luo et al. 2018). The major limitation is that hazardous disease like contaminated waterborne diseases caused in aerated lagoons, so as to avoid the disease from the lagoons precaution measures should be taken by the people who are working near the treatment plant and also it should be perfectly maintained (Alhamlan et al. 2013). The removal efficiency of nitrogen was 87.7% − 97.9% whereas TN content was found to be 85.4% − 96.1% (Alhamlan et al. 2013).
The growing interest for the high impact treatment of industrial waste water trickling filter is being used (Raj and Murthy 1999). In case of trickling filter the wastewater is applied on the bio carrier on which biofilm are developed and the organic matter present in the wastewater are decomposed by biofilm with the help of microbes which are residing inside biofilm. The trickling filter are not submerged into any medium, and through the sprayers the waste water are subjected in the medium as well as this method is used to degrade high nutrient and organic present in wastewater (Amal Raj and Murthy 1999). The media in the trickling filter are arranged with greater permeability, high void fraction, and greater surface area (Amal Raj et al 1999). Trickling filter efficiency depends upon the parameters like temperature, growth rate of microorganisms, pH, removal rate, volume of biomass, nutrient uptake. This type of treatment is also known as nitrogen sources and removal of nutrients (Shahriari et al 2015). The materials which are packed in this process are foam, plastics, rock etc. Trickling filter are used because of its cost effectiveness (Mehrdadi, et al 2012). The bio carrier used in the trickling filter depends on the following parameters like cost effective, high corrosive resistant, high strength, large surface area, elevated porosity, high shock resistance, less weight. The microorganisms present in the biofilm consume vital nutrients like H, C, P, K and also other nutrients. The nutrients and organic matter present in the wastewater are transferred to the biofilm (Shahriari et al 2015).
Activated sludge process is highly used to treat sewage and household wastewater. In case of dairy waste water, it is preferred for the reduction of nitrogen, ammonia, and carbon compounds (Renou et al. 2008). ASP is highly favorable method to treat dairy waste water due to its ability to treat and remove the nutrients present in the water (Umıejewska K 2017). The main ingredients of ASP are protozoa and microbes which help to degrade organic substances and nutrients present in waste water. These microorganisms are able to consume suspended organic substances present in dairy wastewater and then convert it into activated sludge which are on later stage recycled and removed (Tocchi et al. 2012). In this process, the waste water are allowed to pass through aerated tank and further the activated sludge which are formed is removed from the dairy wastewater with the help of clarifier (A. Patel et al. 2016). This method also able to remove complicated substances like lactose, oils, fats, and proteins(Tocchi et al. 2012). But the aerobic granular sludge process is more efficient than aerobic sludge process because of following reasons are elevated settle ability, high biomass recovery, high resistance against shock, less toxicity (Vashi, et al 2018). The removal efficiency of COD and BOD were 96% within 5days (Lateef, et al 2013). The removal efficiency of COD was 90%, total nitrogen was 65% (Donkin et al 1997).
RBC primarily works on the principle of adsorption and normally used to treat industrial and household waste water (Jaison et al. 2017). This method is highly preferred to remove nitrogen compounds from waste water (Mehrdadi, et al 2012). RBC is an attached growth process and widely preferred method due to its less energy consumption and high removal efficiency (Jaison et al. 2017). To enhance the growth of microorganism aeration is provided (Jaison et al. 2017). The microorganisms present in biofilm consume nutrients and organic compound which leads to increase in biomass volume, and slowly biofilm layer get thickened and volume increases. The sludge which are thickened falls down from the carrier and get mixed with sludge digester and finally convert to water and gas (Kamath et al. 2018). To treat various types of waste water RBC is preferred due to its feature such as easy operation, large surface, easy construction, less energy consumption, less maintenance, cost effectiveness, less shock. It becomes the main treatment system in aerobic treatment of waste water (Ebrahimi et al 2009). The removal efficiency of COD was 85% in RBC process (Rusten, et al 1992). The removal efficiency of COD was 96% with HRT of 36hrs (Ebrahimi et al 2009).
Sequencing batch reactor is the most preferred technology for the treatment of dairy waste water. In this technology dairy wastewater is added in a single batch reactor, and treated for the reduction of organic compounds and then discharged (Kushwaha, et al 2011). In single batch reactor aeration, equalization and clarification all can be achieved (Samkutty, et al 1996). The SBR efficiency depends upon different parameters such as HRT, volume of dissolved oxygen, COD, composition of organic loading, denitrification, nutrient composition, nitrification. This treatment system is compatible for various industrial waste water because of its efficiency, and easy construction (X. Li et al 2002). The removal efficiency of SBR process are 90% COD, 80% TN, 67% total phosphorus, and BOD removal in the range of 97–98% (Schwarzenbeck, et al 2005).
3.3.1.1 Biofiltration
In the biofiltration process the microorganisms are fixed to a medium which are porous and helps in the process of breakdown of foreign pollutants present in wastewater. The microorganisms grow on the surface of the medium used, and are suspended on the liquid phase encompassing the medium particles by the formation of biofilm (Srivastava et al 2008).The medium present in filter bed constitutes materials which are relatively inert and provide large surface area for attachment of biomass along with nutrient supply. The efficiency of biofiltration depends on the two factors i.e. properties and characteristics of the medium, it includes ability to host the population of microbes, porosity, water retention capacities, compaction degree. As in case of normal filtration physical strainer is required for biodegradable pollutant to decompose, but in biofiltration biodegradable pollutant decomposed by biological degradation(Lewandowski et al 2011). With the advancement of biofiltration process, microbes (facultative, anaerobic, aerobic, fungi, protozoa, algae) are slowly developed on the surface of the media and form a slime layer or biological film called as biofilm. For the successful bio filtration operation main crucial factor that is to maintain and control a healthy biofilm around the medium. The efficiency of bio filtration method mainly depends on the activities of microorganisms, as a constant source of nutrients and organic substances are required for its effective and consistent operation, and also some chemoautotrophic microbes use inorganic chemical as their source of energy. The parameters that are responsible for the efficiency of bio filtration are pH, concentration of toxic pollutant initially, temperature, concentration of oxygen (Van Loosdrecht et al. 1990). For the better efficiency of bio filtration the filter media can be modified chemically and genetically modification of microbes. Table 2 summarizesbio filtration process using varying media to treat different types of wastewater.
Table 2
Treatment of wastewater by biofiltration process using different media.
S N | Biofilter media | Type of wastewater | Parameter Removal efficiency | References |
1 | Gravel, anthracites | Synthetic humic acid water | TOC 55% | (Lin et al 2011) |
2 | Large stone, saw dust, vermi compost with earthworm | Urban wastewater | TSS 88.6%, TDS 99.8%, COD90%, NO3−92.7%, PO43−98.3% | (Tomar et al 2011) |
3 | Granular activated carbon, sand, gravel | Domestic wastewater | dissolved organic carbon 35–60%,pharmaceuticals and personal care products > 90%,baseline toxicity equivalent concentration 28–68% | (Reungoat et al. 2011) |
4 | Corbicula fluminea | Winery wastewater | COD 99% | (Cooper, et al |
5 | C. fluminea | Swine wastewater | sCOD 91% | (Domingues et al. 2021) |
6 | Corncob, woodchips, Eiseniafoetida | Domestic wastewater | COD 86%, BOD591% | (Karla et al. 2021) |
7 | Vermi filtration | Urban wastewater | BOD597.5%,tCOD74.3%, pCOD91.1%, TSS 98.2% and NH4+ 88.1% | (Lourenço et al 2017) |
3.3.2 Anaerobic treatment
As there are some disadvantages of aerobic treatment like high energy required through aeration, and efficiency is less due to growth of microorganisms (Sivakumar, et al 2012). Anaerobic treatment is an efficient method to degrade organic constitutes with the help of microbes in the absence of oxygen (Kalat et al 2017). In anaerobic digestion process involves two steps like stabilization and degradation with the help of microbes (Chatzipaschali et al 2012). The microbes with help in the anaerobic digestion are mixed culture of methanogenic and acidogenic(Krishnan et al. 2017). In comparison with aerobic treatment system generation of sludge is low and utilize a large content of organic waste for energy generation (Hamza, et al 2016). The factors responsible for the best efficiency in anaerobic process for the waste water treatment are sludge retention, and mass transfer (Lohani et al. 2016).
Anaerobic filter is a type of anaerobic treatment helps in treating low strength waste water and high strength waste water is limited because of high OLR (Karadag, et al. 2015b). The packing materials in the anaerobic filters are used to hold up the microorganisms in the voids. The packing material increases the surface area, and porosity. The sufficient surface area of the biocarrier improves biomass connection; large porosity lowers the reactor volume; and limits channel obstruction. The different materials used in anaerobic filter are seashell, plastic materials, sintered glass, charcoal, ceramic, rocks, limestone, clay (Karadag, et al. 2015b). The removal efficiency of COD was 80% (Loupasaki et al 2013).
In current days the up flow anaerobic sludge blanket has tremendously increased its popularity for waste water treatment containing organic materials. The settling characteristics of this type of reactor are better because the sludge of the reactor does not allow undergoing mechanical agitation. In UASB mixing occurs due to flow distribution; and that occurs with high velocity; and gas produces because of agitation (Kushwaha, et al 2011). This process is highly cost effective because it utilizes less pump energy for recirculation process and does not require any other expenses. It does not require any support materials for retaining a high density anaerobic sludge (Goli et al. 2019). The maximum removal efficiency of COD was 80%, and maximum BOD removal efficiency was 90% (Samadi, et al 2017).
Continuous stirred tank reactor is practiced widely in laboratory scale than in full scale treatment due to its HRT limitation. This process is applied in synthetic and diluted waste water treatment (Carvalho, et al 2013b). Recently researchers focused on the treatment of waste water by CSTR for degradation of organic matter, and methane yield (Morken, et al 2018).
Anaerobic fluidized bed reactor efficiency gets limited because during the operation of the reactor biomass loss occurs and also due to the presence of large quantity of solid in the wastewater (Kushwaha, et al 2011). An additional support has been created in the reactor which adhere the generated biomass and it causes low HRT and high loading capacities. But fluidized bed reactor has the capacity to treat high OLRs (Hamza,et al 2016). In case of AFBR the microbes get attached to the bio carrier media and effluent flows upward to the media. The bio carrier used in this process are sand particles, mud particles, plastic granules, charcoal pieces, glass beads (Chowdhury, et al 2017). The efficiency of FBR depends on different components like capacity to escape growth of biofilm thickness, and contact between fine particles carried out by microorganisms and liquid. The advantages of AFBR are high mass transfer rate, low clogging, capacity to handle high load, high biomass, low space requirement (Burghate et al 2013), (Shete,et al 2013). The maximum removal efficiency of COD was 84% (Janet Joshiba et al. 2019).