Biological Wastewater Treatment of Nutrient-Deficient Tomato-Processing and Bean-Processing Wastewater

A pilot-scale anaerobic/aerobic ultrafiltration system and a bench-scale anaerobic/aerobic system were tested to treat high-strength tomato-processing wastewater and bean-processing wastewater. The anaerobic/aerobic pilot-scale system achieved 99.4% SBOD removal, 91.9% NH3-N removal, and 100% phosphorus removal at an overall hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.5 days and solids retention time (SRT) of 5 days during the tomato canning season. The bench-scale anaerobic/aerobic system was used to confirm the pilot-scale anaerobic/aerobic system performance. Wastewater fractionation and kinetic coefficients were studied using respirometric methods.