Pollution Prevention Poultry Processing Success Story Office of Pollution Prevention

Recycling water in poultry processing

Each operation on the process line in a poultry plant uses water and produces wastewater. The wastewaters typically contain high levels of organic and inorganic wastes that can impose a very large load on local wastewater treatment plants.

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total solids (TS) in wastewater streams from poultry plants usually average 2,000 milligrams per liter (mg/l) each. Waste concentrations vary with the source of the wastewater. They can range from a high of 4,000 mg/l for chemical oxygen demand and 3,000 mg/l for total solids in the giblet chiller effluent to a low of 250 mg/l for each of these parameters in the wastewater from the whole bird washer.

Treating and recycling some of the water used in poultry processing can save plant managers a great deal of money by cutting both water and sewer costs, as demonstrated by the following study.

Study Tests Chiller Water Recycling

USDA recycling regulations require that the treatment process reduce microorganism concentrations by at least 60%, including coliforms, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and the total microorganism count. The regulations also call for the treated water to have a light transmission (T) of at least 60% at 500 nanometers (nm). As the quality of reconditioned water improves, less of the reconditioned water is required to replace a gallon of fresh water in the chiller. At the maximum recycle ratio, 1.75 gallons of recycled chiller water is required to replace 1 gallon of fresh water. As the quality of the reconditioned water improves, this ratio decreases, making it possible to use as little as 1 gallon of reconditioned water to replace a gallon of fresh water.

Bank or Drain

Methods and Results

	Ozonation in a countercurrent-flow contact column.
	Screening, ozonation, sand filtration, and ozonation.
	Screening, diatomaceous earth (DE) filtration, and ozonation.
Ozonation alone significantly improved the quality of the water, which met all requirements for recycling within 10 to 20 minutes of treatment. Twenty minutes of ozonation reduced the chemical oxygen demand by 38% and the total solids load by 28%. Both the sand and diatomaceous earth filtration treatments yielded water quality that exceeded the federal recycling requirements. The DE treatment yielded the highest quality in the shortest treatment, although the sand and DE processes are not directly comparable because of variations in process time. Five minutes of filtration through diatomaceous earth followed by 15 minutes of ozonation resulted in an average light transmission of 97%. This method also reduced chemical oxygen demand by 87% and total solids by 65%. Total microbial loads were reduced by more than 99.9% and no coliforms or salmonella were detectable by disinfection. No significant carcass quality differences (color, taste, or shelf life) could be observed between carcasses chilled in tap water and those chilled in recycled chiller water. Results of this study show that water can be effectively treated to reduce effluent waste loads at their sources and to reduce fresh water demands for poultry chillers. Systems for recycling water in poultry processing Potential economic impact Current USDA regulations require that 1/2 gallon of water be used to chill every broiler. If a plant processes 240,000 broilers per day, it uses at least 120,000 gallons of water daily to chill carcasses. If 80% of that water could be reconditioned, 96,000 gallons of water could be saved each day. At a cost of $1.90 per thousand gallons for water and sewer charges, this plant could save 24,000,000 gallons of water valued at more than $45,000 per year. Chemical oxygen demand and total solids loads in the effluent could also be reduced by approximately 200,000 pounds per year (assuming an initial average of 1,000 mg/l of COD and TS, respectively, in the untreated chiller water). If the surcharge on excess chemical oxygen demand is 20 cents per pound, the surcharge savings could be almost $40,000 per year. Thus the potential savings for water, sewer, and surcharges could total $85,000 per year. Other savings might be realized through by-product recovery and reductions in energy costs. The cost of purchasing and operating this type of system is currently being determined. Other treatment processes that have been identified for further study include filtration, chlorination, ultraviolet disinfection, hydrogen peroxide disinfection, chemical treatments, screening, and clarification. The results of the study described here demonstrate, however, that the recycling of chiller water may offer a way to prevent environmental pollution while helping to conserve valuable water resources. This success story was obtained by the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service. This Pollution Prevention Success Story is provided as a service of the Office of the Pollution Prevention, a non-regulatory, technical assistance program of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. For more information on opportunities toprevent pollution, contact: Office of Pollution Prevention Virginia Department of Environmental Quality 629 East Main Street, 5th Floor P.O. Box 10009 Richmond, Virginia 23240-0009 (804) 698-4545, FAX (804) 698-4346 e-mail: rtgriffin@deq.state.va.us Updated 9/8/97