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Environmental Technology
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Management of wastewater from the vegetable

dehydration industry in Egypt a case study
a

Fatma El-Gohary , Hala El-Kamah , Rifaat Abdel Wahaab , Mohamed Mahmoud &
Hamdy A. Ibrahim

Water Pollution Research Department , National Research Centre , El-Tahrir Street, Cairo ,
Egypt
b

Faculty of Engineering , Ain Shams University , Cairo , Egypt

Published online: 18 Nov 2011.

To cite this article: Fatma El-Gohary , Hala El-Kamah , Rifaat Abdel Wahaab , Mohamed Mahmoud & Hamdy A. Ibrahim (2012)
Management of wastewater from the vegetable dehydration industry in Egypt a case study, Environmental Technology, 33:2,
211-219, DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2011.559276
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2011.559276

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Environmental Technology
Vol. 33, No. 2, January 2012, 211219

Management of wastewater from the vegetable dehydration industry in Egypt a case study
Fatma El-Goharya , Hala El-Kamaha , Rifaat Abdel Wahaaba , Mohamed Mahmouda and Hamdy A. Ibrahimb
a Water

Pollution Research Department, National Research Centre, El-Tahrir Street, Cairo, Egypt; b Faculty of Engineering,
Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Downloaded by [Eindhoven Technical University] at 09:16 19 October 2014

(Received 4 September 2010; Accepted 24 January 2011 )

Management of wastewater from the vegetable dehydration industry was the subject of this study. A continuous monitoring
programme for wastewater was carried out for almost four months. The characterization of the wastewater indicated that the
vegetable dehydration wastewater contains moderate concentrations of organics, solids and nutrients. The wastewater was
subjected to three dierent treatment processes, namely aerobic treatment, anaerobic treatment and chemical coagulation
occulation treatment. For aerobic treatment, the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand
(BOD5 ) and total suspended solids (TSS) was accomplished within 5 h, and no further reduction was observed after that,
with the steady state COD and BOD5 removal eciencies being 95% 10% and 97% 8%, respectively. For anaerobic
treatment, the removal eciencies for COD, BOD5 and TSS were 6781%, 7086% and 5669%, respectively at hydraulic
retention times (HRTs) of 5, 6 and 8 h. Chemical coagulationocculation treatment also achieved good results. The COD
removal eciency was 72%, 51% and 75% for ferric chloride (56 g/m3 of wastewater), lime (140 g/m3 of wastewater) and
ferric chloride aided with lime (100 g/m3 for ferric chloride and 200 g/m3 for lime), respectively. The corresponding TSS
removal values were 92% 17%, 20% 7% and 93% 9%. Based on the available results and the seasonally operated
mode of this industry in Egypt, the chemical coagulationocculation process is therefore considered to be moste applicable
from a technical point of view and for the simplicity of operation and maintenance.
Keywords: vegetable dehydration industry; aerobic biodegradation; anaerobic treatment; chemical coagulationocculation

1. Introduction
The variety of organic pollutants released by an everincreasing number of industries is the direct cause of
environmental and health-related problems that have detrimental eects on living beings [1]. The strict monitoring by
the pollution control board in Egypt has led to closure of
many industrial units that had not been able to meet the environmental regulations, thus aecting the economy. Because
on-site treatment of euents from small-scale industries
is economically unviable, the concept of common euent
treatment plants for collective treatment of such euents is
being considered.
Compared with other industrial sectors, the food industry needs a greater amount of water than other sectors
[2]. Most of the industrial wastewater generated from various operations in the food industry is highly contaminated
with organic matters, total dissolved solids, total suspended
solids and oil and grease [3]. The processing of dried vegetables is of great economical importance in Egypt. Although
this type of industry operates seasonally, the whole process
requires large volumes of tap water mainly for cleaning
and washing the vegetables in several stages, as well as for
dierent uses in the production plants. Therefore, the most
frequent procedure is the discharge of untreated wastewater
Corresponding

into the sewerage system, exerting a negative impact on the

performance of sewage treatment plants [4].
Treatment of both low and high strength wastewater
by aerobic biological processes has been widely demonstrated. The activated sludge process and low-loaded aerobic lagoons have been extensively applied for treatment
of food industry wastewater [5,6]. The performance of
the activated sludge process often relies on a good solid
liquid separation between the treated wastewater and the
sludge in the nal clarier [7]. This solidliquid separation
depends on the settling properties of the sludge and various
parameters like organic load, low dissolved oxygen, nutrient limitation, dispersed aeration and an anoxic condition
in the sedimentation tank.
On the other hands, anaerobic treatment processes have
been shown to be economic and eective methods for
treatment of a wide variety of industrial wastewater with
high organic matter content because of valuable biogas
production, lower capital and operation costs, less sludge
production, higher organic loading application and less
energy consumption compared with conventional aerobic
processes [8,9]. Various food processing wastewaters using
dierent types of anaerobic reactors have been investigated
including beet sugar wastewater [10], tomato processing

author. Email: mohamed_mahmoud_84@yahoo.com or m_mahmoud@lycos.com

ISSN 0959-3330 print/ISSN 1479-487X online

2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2011.559276
http://www.tandfonline.com

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212

F. El-Gohary et al.

wastewater [11], cheese production wastewater [12], fruit

juice wastewater [4], dairy wastewater [13] and slaughterhouse wastewater [14].
However, a coagulationocculation process may be
used as a pretreatment prior to biological treatment in
order to enhance biodegradability of the wastewater during the biological treatment [15]. An essential feature of
the coagulationocculation process is the elimination of
suspended solids and as much of the organic materials as
possible [16,17]. Coagulation/occulation is widely used
for industrial wastewater treatment [15,18] in which various inorganic coagulants such as ferric chloride, ferrous
sulphate, aluminium sulphate and lime are added to wastewater to destabilize the colloidal materials and cause the small
particles to agglomerate into larger settleable ocs. Several
studies have been made of this process for the treatment
of industrial wastewater, especially with respect to performance optimization of coagulants, determination of experimental conditions, assessment of pH eect and investigation
of occulant addition [1518]. Moreover, coagulation
occulation has been found to be cost-eective, easy to
operate and an energy-saving treatment alternative [19].
Coagulant dosages vary in a wide range aimed at maximum pollutant removal eciency using minimum doses at
optimum pH [20,21].
The main purpose of this present study was to compare three main options for wastewater treatment generated
from the vegetable dehydration industry in order to produce
treated wastewater that complied with the national standards for discharge into public sewers. For this case study,
the operational behaviour of an activated sludge system,
an anaerobic reactor and chemical coagulation/occulation
treatment was reported. The operation of these plants was
accomplished in parallel during the vegetable dehydration
campaign, which lasted four months.
2.

Materials and methods

2.1.

Field location and description of production

processes
The wastewater used in this study was collected from a vegetable dehydration factory in the city of Beni Suef, located
115 km south of Cairo, Egypt. The manufactured products
are based on onion dehydration. The factory is run seasonally for a period of four months in the year. The factory
discharge is about 840 m3 /day. The discharged wastewater is collected into a storage tank and discharged into the
sewerage system without any treatment.
The vegetable dehydration process is performed in
a series of three consecutive stages, namely pre-drying
treatments, a dehydration process and post-dehydration
treatments. The production process can be described as
follows:
1. Pre-drying treatments: Pre-drying treatments take
place in three units operating in parallel. During

this stage, the raw product for dehydration is prepared. Raw product preparation includes selection
and sorting, washing, peeling, cutting into the
appropriate shape and blanching.
2. Dehydration: the aim of this stage is to remove the
majority of the water contained in the vegetable and
is the primary stage in the production of dehydrated
vegetables. The drying methods used is vacuum
dehydration.
3. Post-dehydration treatments: during this stage,
the dehydrated products are treated according
to the type of vegetable and the intended use
of the product. These processes include sweating,
screening, inspection, instantization treatments and
packaging.
Maximum aerobic biodegradability(ArBmax )
experiment
The maximum aerobic biodegradability (ArBmax ) at a temperature of 25 C was determined. Aeration of the raw
wastewater was carried out using a 1 L glass column provided with a special sintered glass disk at the bottom. The
air rate was adjusted so that small bubbles of air were emitted over the entire surface of the glass diuser. Under these
conditions, the dissolved oxygen concentration in the reactor was kept between 2 and 3 mg O2 /L. The experiments
were carried out without addition of sludge inoculum. The
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5 ) concentration was
measured at the start and at dierent retention times to determine the optimum contact time for BOD5 removal. This
experiment was repeated four times.

2.2.

2.3. Bench-scale experiments and treatability studies

In this study, three treatment alternatives were designed and
manufactured for treatment of wastewater generated from
the vegetable dehydration industry.
2.3.1. Biological aerobic treatment
The activated sludge (AS) system used in this study was
a batch-scale completely mixed reactor model. The bioreactor system was made from glass with a working volume
of 2 L (Figure 1). The bioreactor was initially inoculated
with 1 L of biomass. The used biomass (3.1 g of volatile
suspended solids [VSS] per litre and sludge volume index
[SVI] of 56 millilitres per gram of total suspended solids
[TSS]) was taken from a nearby full-scale AS plant treating domestic wastewater (Zeneen, Cairo). The bioreactor
was aerated through an air diuser. Under these conditions,
the dissolved oxygen concentration in the reactor was kept
between 2 and 3 mg/L [2224]. The batch aerobic treatability studies were conducted at room temperature (25 C)
using an initial substrate with a ratio of chemical oxygen
demand (COD) toVSS of 0.54. To attain the acclimated

Environmental Technology

213

for 1 min followed by slow mixing for 30 min at 25 rpm.

The characteristics of the chemically treated euent were
determined after a settlement period of 60 min. Samples for
analyses were taken by means of a suction device allowing
the withdrawal of accurate amounts from all jars at the same
time. This experiment was repeated eight times.

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Figure 1.
set-up.

Schematic diagram of the aerobic batch bioreactor

state, the AS system was fed twice a day with a mixture of

domestic and industrial wastewater for one week. This was
followed by two weeks operation using the raw industrial
wastewater. After reaching the acclimated state, the AS system was fed with 1 L of raw wastewater, and then 100 mL
of the mixed liquor were sampled from the AS system at
dierent aeration times. The mixed liquor was allowed to
settle for one hour, and then the supernatant was withdrawn
and analysed. In this batch-scale study, the system was initially operated at dierent retention times to determine the
optimum contact time in terms of COD, BOD5 and TSS
removal. This experiment was repeated six times.
2.3.2. Biological anaerobic treatment
Anaerobic treatment was conducted using a 5 L upow
anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor. The system was
operated at room temperature. The reactor was seeded
with digested sludge at a concentration of 20 g/L for total
solids and 12 g/L for volatile solids. Seed sludge was
obtained from a UASB reactor treating domestic wastewater. Prior to seeding, the sludge was acclimated to the
investigated wastewater. The alkalinity was maintained at
a level high enough to avoid any possible acid inhibition of
the anaerobic process. Any possible oxygen interference
was avoided by periodical nitrogen gas bubbling, keeping always a closed nitrogen-saturated atmosphere [2527].
Samples from the anaerobic reactor were taken periodically
to follow the evolution of COD fractions, BOD5 and TSS
degradation with time.
2.3.3. Chemical coagulationocculation treatment
Chemical coagulation/occulation experiments using different coagulants, namely ferric chloride, lime and ferric
chloride aided with lime, were carried out. The analytical
grade coagulants were supplied by Merck. All solutions
were freshly prepared before carrying out the experiments.
The standard jar-test apparatus (Phipps & Bird Stirrer,
Model 7790-400) was used to determine optimum operating
conditions. For the jar test, 500 mL of the wastewater was
transferred into the jar. The samples in the jar were rapidly
mixed at a paddle speed of 250 rpm and then the coagulants were instantaneously added. Rapid mixing occurred

2.4. Sampling programme and analyses

Because of the considerable variability in the wastewater
quality over time, composite samples were collected. The
samples were kept cool (4 C) during transportation to the
laboratory by storing them in insulated boxes with freezer
packs. Once at the laboratory, the were analysed for pH,
COD, BOD5 , TSS, total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), total
phosphorous (Total-P), sulphate, oil and grease (O&G), and
hydrogen sulphide. A raw sample was used for COD analysis, and samples ltered through a 0.45 m membrane
were used for soluble COD (SCOD) analysis. Moreover,
sludge characteristics including sludge volume, total solids,
volatile solids and SVI were also assessed. All analyses
were carried out according to APHA [28].

2.5. Engineering studies

Based on the experimental results of the treatability study
and nal recommendations, an engineering design was
carried out.
2.5.1. Design assumptions
During the operation of treatment plants, some assumptions
were made to design to the closest real and estimated costs
of the plants. Those assumptions were chosen with a bias
to the negative conditions of boundary values given in the
literature.
2.5.1.1. Biological activated sludge processes. The raw
wastewater was subjected to pre-settlement in the primary
sedimentation basin. This basin was designed according
to 2 h of retention time and 1.12 m3 /(m2 h) surface loading rate. The overow was taken into the aeration basin,
which was designed according to 5 h of hydraulic retention
time (HRT) and 0.31 kg BOD/kg MLVSS sludge loading
rate. The secondary clarier was designed to settle and collect activated sludge at the end of the biological processes.
A scraper was used to scrape settled sludge. A retention
time of 2 h and a hydraulic loading rate of 1.20 m3 /(m2 h)
were used in the design of the clarier. Settled sludges were
pumped to a gravitational sludge thickener. A retention time
36 h and a sludge loading rate 60 kg/(m2 d) were used in
the design. The beam installation was also considered to
increase the density of the sludge. Thickened biological
sludge was conditioned by polymers and dewatered using
a belt-press [29].

214

F. El-Gohary et al.

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2.5.1.2. Biological anaerobic treatment. The raw wastewater was subjected to the UASB reactor with an organic
loading rate (OLR) of 8.3 kg COD/(m3 d) and 6 h HRT.
An upow velocity of 0.6 to 0.9 m/h of was used in the
design of the UASB reactor.
2.5.1.3. Chemical coagulationocculation treatment.
In chemical treatment, the raw wastewater was subjected to
coagulation and occulation. Rapid (coagulation) and slow
(occulation) mixing units were designed according to the
retention time in these units which were 1 min and 30 min,
respectively. Mixers were used in these units. Coagulants
were dosed according to the ow rate and pH of the euent by dosage pumps which were controlled by a pH meter.
The type and dose of chemicals used within the chemical
treatment process are of vital importance. In general, these
are determined previously by jar tests. The chemically conditioned euent was settled in a chemical sedimentation
basin. A retention time of 1 h and a surface loading rate of
1.41 m3 /(m2 h) were used in the design. A scraper was
installed to remove the settled sludge. The chemical sludge
was pumped to a gravitational sludge thickener. A retention time of 36 h and a sludge loading rate of 60 kg/(m2 d)
were used in the design. The beam installation was also
considered to increase the density of the sludge. Thickened
sludge was conditioned by polymers and dewatered using
a belt-press.
2.5.2. Cost analysis
2.5.2.1. Investment cost. The investment cost was estimated considering construction, mechanical instrument,
electrication, piping, transportation, engineering and consulting costs. Projected treatment plants have no site plan;
hence the treatment units were assumed to be placed in a
minimum required area.
For construction costs, it was assumed that all units
would be excavated with 0.6 m of working space between
each side of excavation border and the unit [22,29]. The soil
properties play an important role in the excavation process.
However, the project area and the soil properties did not
exist in this study. In general, the excavation depth is determined according to the hydraulic ow between the units.
The transportation cost of excavation was assumed to be
15% of the construction costs [29]. It was assumed that
a 0.10 m depth of excavation would be done by hand and
the rest of the excavation would be done by earth-moving
machines. Excavated sites were lled and compacted with
a 0.10 m thick layer of ne ller material and lined with
a 0.05 m thick rubble concrete layer and would be ready
for construction. All structures were assumed to be built
using medium-strength (25 MPa) concrete with waterproof
additive to prevent leakage in the basins. All basins were
rectangular shaped (except the UASB reactor), and the wall
and mat foundation thicknesses of the basins were calculated as 0.30 m and 0.50 m, respectively. The necessary

weight of steel bars was assumed to be 0.1 ton/m3 concrete.

The UASB reactor was assumed to be cylindrically shaped
concrete basins with steel roong. A steel roof was chosen
to ease construction. The inner lateral surface and the bottom of the concrete basins were assumed to be painted with
epoxy in order to prevent acidic reactions with the concrete.
The trusses of the steel roof and the steel roof itself were
assumed to be painted with a special paint to prevent corrosion. To keep the USAB reactor warm, the bottom of the
basins and the outer lateral surface of the USAB reactor
were isolated [22,29].
Regarding mechanical instrumentation costs, blowers
and sludge dewatering equipment are two of the expensive
mechanical instruments in wastewater treatment plants. The
investment costs of blowers and belt-presses, which were
chosen as the sludge dewatering equipment, were selected
from the catalogues of relevant companies.
The engineering, consulting and supervising costs were
assumed to be 15% of the construction costs. The electrical
instrumentation cost was assumed to be 15% of the construction costs. The costs of pumps, pipes and ttings were
assumed to be 3% of the construction costs. Also, 3% of the
construction costs was separated for unidentied costs.
2.5.2.2. Operation and maintenance (O&M) cost. In
addition to the investment cost, the operation and maintenance costs of the treatment plant have to be taken into
consideration for cost analyses. In some cases, these costs
are higher than the investment cost. In this study, electricity and coagulant consumptions, sludge disposal and
transportation costs were considered as major operational
and maintenance costs of the plants. Unit prices for coagulants were supplied from relevant companies, and were
US$0.16/kg for lime and US$0.21/kg for ferric chloride.
It was assumed that the sludge would be disposed to a
landll and the sludge disposal unit cost was estimated as
US$12/m3 . The annual maintenance costs were estimated
to be 3% of the investment cost.
2.5.2.3. Unit treatment cost. When a budget is being
assessed for an infrastructure project, the maintenance and
rehabilitation costs of the plant during its economical life
and the amortization of investment cost have to be taken
into consideration. Since the investment costs and operation
and maintenance costs do not occur at the same time, investment costs, in general, are written in terms of operation and
maintenance cost, or vice versa.
The economic life of an infrastructure project is usually considered to be 50 years and the rehabilitation life is
20 years. In this study, the investment cost was uniformly
distributed to 20 years of rehabilitation life with respect to
an annual discount rate of 8%. Thus, investment costs were
denoted in the same units of the operation and maintenance
costs.

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Environmental Technology
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Wastewater characteristics
Variations in the characteristics of the wastewater are presented in Table 1. The available data indicated that the
pH value is in the acidic range (< 5), so, to provide
buering capacity, 1.01.5 mol of bicarbonate was added
to ensure that the wastewater pH did not drop below 7.4
[30]. With regard to the characteristics of the nal wastewater discharged from the factory, a great variation has been
recorded. As observed, vegetable dehydration wastewater
contains moderate concentrations of organics, solids and
nutrients compared with wastewaters generated from different food industries [46]. It also contains a relatively
high amount of biodegradable organic matter (BOD5 /COD
ratio = 0.58). Average values of COD, BOD5 and TSS were
1664, 973 and 158 mg/L. The concentrations of oil and
grease ranged from 38.6 to 54.8 mg/L with an average value
of 43 mg/L depending upon the ongoing operation. Average values of TKN, total phosphorous, and sulphate were
40, 3.5 and 42 mg/L, respectively. Hydrogen sulphide did
not exceed 4 mg/L.
3.2.

Maximum aerobic biodegradability(ArBmax )

experiment
The results obtained reveal a relatively low aerobic
biodegradability for the raw vegetable dehydration wastewater (43%) based on BOD5 removal. However, this value
was reached after 7 h. This could be due to nutrient limitation in relation to BOD5 and the acidic pH of the raw
wastewater.
3.3. Biological aerobic treatment
The removal eciency for COD, BOD5 and TSS in the
aerobic bioreactor operated at an initial substrate to microorganism ratio of 0.54 g COD/g VSS is depicted in Figure 2.
Table 1.

Characteristics of the investigated wastewater.

Parameter

Unit

Average*

National standards
regulating discharge
of industrial
wastewater to
public sewers [32]

pH value
COD
BOD5
TSS
Total solids
TKN
Total-P
O&G
Suphate
Soluble sulphide

mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L

4.047.28
1664 (683)
973 (459)
158 (52)
1471 (496)
40 (12)
3.5 (2.6)
43 (7)
42 (27)
3.3 (1.2)

6.09.5
1100
600
800

100
25
100

10

*Average of 28 samples; standard deviations are between

brackets.

215

Figure 2. COD, BOD5 and TSS removals in the aerobic bioreactor system treating vegetable dehydration wastewater.

As is apparent from Figure 2, pollutant removal was accomplished within 5 h, and no further reduction was observed
after that, with the steady state COD, BOD5 and TSS concentrations stabilizing at 115, 55 and 42 mg/L, respectively.
The corresponding removal eciencies were 95% 10%,
97% 8% and 83% 9%. This is to be excepted since any
organic loading above the maximum microbial uptake will
be untreated.
To determine the fraction of non-biodegradable substrate, a plot of the neperian logarithm of COD and SCOD
in the nal euent versus the inverse of the retention time
() was carried out (Figure 3). The intercept with the origin
at 1/ equal to zero (which corresponds to an innite retention time) was equivalent to a COD value of 80 mg/L, which
corresponded to 4.1% of the inuent COD. The concentration of non-biodegradable SCOD was determined to be
27 mg/L, which corresponds to 1.5% of the inuent SCOD.
As shown in Figure 2, the organic matter concentration (COD, BOD5 and TSS) decreased with time, following
a logarithmic pattern, which is considered a classic rstorder kinetic [4]. To determine the kinetic constants, the
concentration of biodegradable soluble organic matter was
determined from the dierence between the experimental
SCOD and the non-biodegradable SCOD. In a rst-order
kinetic model, the substrate concentration at any aeration
time may be expressed as follows [3133]:
S = S0 [Exp (k)]

(1)

where S and S0 are the concentrations of biodegradable

substrate at any time of aeration and at the beginning of
the experiment, respectively; k is the reaction constant for
substrate removal (/h); and  is the retention time (h).

Figure 3. Determination of the non-biodegradable fractions of

COD and SCOD in vegetable dehydration wastewater.

216

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Figure 4.

F. El-Gohary et al.

Determination of the rst-order kinetic constant.

Figure 5. Evolution of biomass concentrations versus aeration

time in the aerobic bioreactor.

For validation of the rst-order model and to determine

the values of k, the neperian logarithm of the S/S0 ratios
were plotted versus . A straight line whose slope was
equivalent to k and intercepts equal to zero was obtained.
In this experiment, the regression coecients (R2 ) were
0.962 and 0.984 for COD and SCOD, respectively, while the
values of k obtained were 0.678 and 0.83 h1 , respectively
(Figure 4).
With respect to the biomass (Figure 5), its evolution
agrees well with the typical growth-cycle phases for batch
cultivations [35]. As Figure 5 shows, the population of
microorganisms increases straight away indicating that the
lag phase is not present in this system owing to the use of
biomass that had been previously acclimatized [36].
3.4. Biological anaerobic treatment
The start-up of the UASB reactor was rapid because the
system had been adapted to the vegetable dehydration
wastewater. The reactor was started with an OLR of 3 kg
COD/(m3 d) to keep the initial loading rate below approximately 50% of the intended loading after the start-up
period [37]. The loading rate was gradually increased

Table 2.

over afour-week period to 6.23 kg COD/(m3 d). In this

investigation, the eect of OLR on UASB reactor performance was evaluated. The UASB reactor was operated
at three dierent HRTs, namely 5, 6 and 8 h, throughout
the study, while the corresponding OLRs were 10, 8.3 and
6.23 kg COD/(m3 d), respectively.
For the vegetable dehydration wastewater, inuent
suspended solids constituted 9.4% of COD (R2 = 0.85,
not shown). Habets [38] stated that for high-rate UASB
reactor processes the inuent suspended solids should
constitute no more than 10% of total COD. Above
this level, pretreatment may be required. The obtained
results indicated that the increase in HRT signicantly
improved the COD, SCOD, BOD5 and TSS removal
(Table 2).
At the rst phase of the study, the OLR was adjusted
to around 6.23 kg COD/(m3 d) corresponding to an HRT
of 8 h. The UASB reactor exhibited satisfactory results
for COD, BOD5 and TSS removals. The UASB reactor
provided euent quality of around 405 mg/L for COD,
200 mg/L for SCOD, 150 mg/L for BOD5 and 150 mg/L
for TSS, corresponding to removal values of 81%, 83%,
86% and 69%.
In the next phase, the OLR was increased by 25% to
reach 8.3 kg COD/(m3 d). Removal eciency was drastically decreased to be 72%, 79%, 76% and 59% for COD,
SCOD, BOD5 and TSS. The UASB reactor produced an
euent quality of 566 mg/L for COD, 255 mg/L for SCOD,
254 mg/L for BOD5 and 200 mg/L for TSS.
At the beginning of the third phase, the OLR was
increased to 10 kg COD/(m3 d). The system behaviour
was similar to earlier stages in that a transient decrease
in performance was observed. The 45% increase in OLR
did not seem to have a signicant adverse eect on removal of organics. The COD, SCOD, BOD5 and TSS
removal eciencies reached 67%, 60%, 69% and 56%,
respectively.
In this investigation, COD removal was lower than
that previously reported for a UASB reactor treating dairy
wastewater at OLRs ranging from 2.4 to 13.5 kg COD/(m3
d) and a shorter HRT of 3 h [39]. In that study, the COD
removals ranged from 61% to 95.6%. These values were
mainly lower than that obtained from a UASB reactor
treating slaughterhouse wastewater at an OLR of 5 kg
COD/(m3 d), where the COD removal was 90% [40], but
they are comparable to those obtained by Boardman et al.

Eciency of UASB reactor treating vegetable dehydration wastewater at dierent HRTs.

UASB reactor euent

Parameters

Unit

Raw wastewater

HRT = 5 h

HRT = 6 h

HRT = 8 h

COD
BOD5
TSS

mg/L
mg/L
mg/L

2077 410
1073 300
483 100

677 210
325 100
210 59

566 190
254 85
200 55

405 100
150 59
150 45

Environmental Technology

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[41], who used a UASB reactor for treatment of wastewaters

from a clam processing facility at OLRs ranging from 4.8
to 16.3 kg COD/(m3 d).
3.5. Chemical coagulationocculation treatment
Generally, the application of a chemical coagulation
occulation process depends on the availability and the cost
of the used chemical coagulants. The coagulants investigated in this study were ferric chloride, lime, and ferric
chloride aided with lime. All solutions were freshly prepared before carrying out the experiments. The optimum
dose of lime (pH = 8.7) and ferric chloride (pH = 5.3)
was 140 and 56 g/m3 of wastewater, respectively, while
the corresponding values for ferric chloride aided with
lime (pH = 7.99) were 100 g/m3 for ferric chloride and
200 g/m3 for lime. The results obtained revealed that the
COD removal eciency was 72%, 51% and 75% for ferric chloride, lime, and ferric chloride aided with lime,
respectively. Corresponding TSS removal values were 92%,
20% and 93%, respectively. Residual COD and TSS concentrations were 547 mg/L and 16 mg/L, 974 mg/L and
166 mg/L, and 484 mg/L and 14 mg/L when ferric chloride, lime, and ferric chloride aided with lime were used as
coagulant, respectively (Table 3).
In general, the amount and the characteristics of the
sludge produced during the coagulationocculation process are highly dependent on the specic coagulant used and
on the operating conditions [42]. The wet sludge volume at
the bottom of the jar test beakers after the coagulation
occulation process was used to quantify the volume of
sludge generated in this study. The characteristics of produced sludge are shown as functions of coagulant type and
optimum dose in Table 4. The data indicate that the sludge
production using lime was only 1.37 kg/m3 . Corresponding
values for ferric chloride and ferric chloride aided with lime
were 2.1 and 2.0 kg/m3 , respectively. However, Amuda and
Amoo [43] found that the use of ferric chloride for treatment of beverage industrial wastewater produced a higher

217

volume of solids with sludge volume ranging from 282 to

669 mL/L.
A relatively high volume of sludge generated from
chemical treatment of industrial wastewater has mostly
hindered the adoption of such processes as an alternative wastewater treatment strategy. However, the results
obtained in Table 4 revealed that the sludge produced is
compact. Improved sludge settleability, compatibility, good
dewatering characteristics, recirculation, recycling potential and sludge stability comprise the major advantages
of sludge based on inorganic chemical coagulants. Such
advantages could partly oset the burden of increased
sludge volumes [44].
Consideration of the available results obtained from the
chemical treatment process tends to show that the use of
ferric chloride aided with lime may be considered a good
and techno-economically feasible alternative for treatment
of wastewater generated from the vegetable dehydration
industry.
3.6.

Cost estimation of the proposed wastewater

treatment plant
In most developing countries, industrial wastewater treatment and disposal are matters of concern that need to be
addressed. The prospects for economic and social development, poverty and priorities for industrial investments
are the main obstacles in making decisions about wastewater facilities. Since nancing, construction, operation and
maintenance of wastewater treatment plants are quite costly,
most developing countries [45] including Egypt, avoid these
projects.
Based on the obtained results and the seasonally operational mode of this industry in Egypt, chemical treatment is
therefore considered to be more applicable from a technical
point of view and simplicity of operation and maintenance.
The optimum dose of coagulant and coagulant aid to achieve
these results was 100 g/m3 for ferric chloride and 200 g/m3
for lime.

Table 3. Eciency of chemical coagulation/occulation process for treatment of vegetable

dehydration wastewater using dierent coagulants.
Chemical coagulationocculation process euent
Parameter

Unit

Raw wastewater

FeCl3 aided with CaO

FeCl3

CaO

COD
TSS

mg/L
mg/L

1970 280
208 48

484 120
14 5

547 98
16 5.5

974 190
166 18

Table 4.

Characteristics of produced sludge from chemical coagulationocculation process.

Parameters
Sludge volume
Sludge weight at 105 C
Sludge volume index (SVI)

Unit

FeCl3 (100 g/m3 ) aided with

CaO (200 g/m3 )

CaO
(140 g/m3 )

FeCl3
(56 g/m3 )

mL/L
kg TS/m3
mL/g TS

70
2
35

90
1.37
65.7

100
2.1
47.6

218

F. El-Gohary et al.
Table 5.

Preliminary cost estimate of the treatment alternatives.

Cost (US$)
Activated sludge process

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Civil works cost

Electromechanical works cost
Annual O&M cost
Annual energy cost
Total

90,909
90,909
10,000
7,090
198,908

Based on the above results, the preliminary cost estimate of the three treatment alternatives is shown in Table 5.
The values shown are based on the available market prices
of 2011 for similar works. The work comprises supply of
all materials, construction of civil work, and supply and
erection of all mechanical and electrical equipments, while
the annual operation and maintenance (O&M) cost includes
electrical energy cost, labor cost, insurance cost etc.
4.

Conclusion

In this study, three alternatives were investigated, in parallel, for the treatment of vegetable dehydration wastewater, to produce treated wastewater that complies with
the national regulatory standards for discharge into public sewers. The treatment technologies were biological
aerobic treatment, biological anaerobic treatment and chemical coagulationocculation. From the available results,
it is possible to conclude that the chemical coagulation
occulation process will secure the best purication and is
more economically promising than the biological aerobic
or anaerobic treatments.
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