Biological nutrient removal from dairy wastewater

The authors developed a synthetic wastewater which closely represents actual milk processing wastewater. The design of this synthetic wastewater was facilitated by the collection of composite wastewater samples from 15 milk processing plants in the Upper Midwest. These samples, milk, and milk products were analyzed for various chemical parameters. Based on these results, they diluted evaporated milk and cottage cheese, as well as a number of dry chemicals to create a synthetic wastewater. The concentrations in the resulting synthetic wastewater matched average concentrations of 15 composite wastewater samples. Four continuous-flow activated sludge treatment systems are currently being operated to evaluate biological nutrient removal using this synthetic wastewater as an influent.