Treatment of Dairy Wastewater Effluent Using Submerged Membrane Microfiltration System

Dairy wastewater effluent has become one of the major concerns for the dairy processing industries. Because of large of wastewater effluent generation, the dairy processing industries may become potential candidates for wastewater reuse. Treated wastewater can be utilized in cooling systems and washing plant floor, as well as its potential use for greenery irrigation purposes. In addition, treating dairy effluent will also benefit the environment. The purpose of this study is to characterize wastewater from a selected dairy industry in Kuwait (Kuwait Dairy Company) and a study of applying microfiltration treatment process for treating the dairy wastewater. A complete treatment system including biological treatment, powdered activated carbon (PAC) and submerged membrane microfiltration system (CMF-S) was installed at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) research plant. The overall results of this study indicate that the complete system is capable of treating the dairy effluent. The average removal efficiencies of the system for biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solid (TDS) were 98.8%, 92.5%, 96.7% respectively.