Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 50, 127}133 (2001)
Environmental Research, Section B
doi:10.1006/eesa.2001.2081, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
Fats, Oils, and Greases: The Minimization and Treatment of Wastewaters
Generated from Oil Refining and Margarine Production
Roy Willey
Unilever Research, SEAC Manufacturing Group, Quarry Road East, Bebington, Wirral, L63 3JW, United Kingdom
Received February 19, 2001
INTRODUCTION
The production of edible oils, margarines, and table
spreads involves up to three main stages. Initially, the crude
oil is extracted from the raw materials, mainly plants and
"sh. The crude oils are then re"ned to produce oils that are
pure, colorless, and free of odor and that have good storage
properties. The re"ned oils and fat can then be processed in
various blends with other ingredients such as pasteurized
skimmed milk, vitamins, protein, emulsi"ers, coloring ma-
terials, and #avoring agents to produce margarine. This
paper will be concerned with the management of waste-
waters from the latter two stages.
In general, pollution control measures either through
process modi"cation or by on-site wastewater treatment
are normally undertaken for one or more of the following
reasons:
E Recovery of materials for reuse or for use as by-prod-
ucts with a saleable value.
E Reduction of water consumption by the recycling of
puri"ed e%uent to process operations which do not demand
high-quality water.
E To meet standards issued by the appropriate authori-
ties for discharge into their sewerage system or to a receiv-
ing water.
E To reduce the trade e%uent charges which are levied by
the municipal authorities to cover the cost of o!-site treat-
ment and disposal.
These objectives apply in the edible oils and fats industry
and have resulted in a broad-based approach to the on-site
management of trade e%uent.
OIL REFINERY PROCESSES
In general, crude oils contain, in addition to the triglycer-
ides, free fatty acids (FFA), gums (phospholipids), peroxides
and oxidation products, metals, and unsaponi"able matter.
Conventional re"ning can be described by considering soy
bean oil as an example, since this oil is widely used and is
representative of most other vegetable oils.
127
Chemical Rexning
Soybean oil enters the re"nery mostly as water-degum-
med oil, which nevertheless still contains a number of com-
ponents that must be removed, as shown in Table 1. The oil
receives a pretreatment with phosphoric acid to hydrate the
nonhydratable phosphatides. Lye is then added to neutral-
ize the FFA and to dissolve a large fraction of the phosphat-
ides and sugars. The net result is a re"ned oil with
characteristics as shown in Table 1 and the formation of
a soap stock in a water phase which separates easily from
the oil phase, generally in a centrifugal system or, for certain
oils, in batch vessels.
Bleaching. Bleaching normally follows, in which bleach-
ing earth (clay) is added to the oil to remove pigments,
peroxides, and metals. The bleaching earth is then removed
by "ltration and often deoiled by means of hot water or
steam washing, prior to disposal as a solid waste.
Deodorization. After bleaching, steam deodorization de-
composes peroxides, removes the constituents responsible
for o!-odors and #avors, and reduces FFA to levels of
0.01}0.03%.
Deodorization is performed in vessels under vacuum
which is most commonly maintained by multistage steam
ejectors with barometric intercondensers.
Modi,cation. Finally, the production of oils and fats for
margarine and table spreads requires additional processes
such as hardening and interesteri"cation, which modify the
oil by changing the melting point, and fractionation, which
segregates oil components by controlled cooling into frac-
tions with di!erent melting points.
Margarine Manufacturing
Margarine manufacturing basically involves the prepara-
tion of an oil phase and an aqueous phase which are careful-
ly mixed through proportionating systems. Typically,
the aqueous phase consists of a blend of oil with water,
whereas the oil phase consists of a blend of oils with added
0147-6513/01 $35.00
Copyright  2001 International Life Sciences Institute
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
128 ROY WILLEY

TABLE 1 E Cleaning and rinsing with caustic-based detergents and

Typical Composition of Water Degummed Soybean Oil water. This includes all process plants and pipework up-
stream and downstream of the two-phase mixing point,
Before alkali After alkali
excluding the oil phase system.
re"ning re"ning
E Range of low-volume streams such as the water phase
Di- and triglycerides (%) 98.6 99.9 of oil recovery from returned product, condensate, and
Free fatty acids (%) 0.7 (0.1 surface water from bunded oil storage areas.
Phospholipids (%) 0.5 Absent
Sugars/glycolipids (%) 0.2 Absent
Metals (mg/kg) APPROACHES TO POLLUTION CONTROL=GENERAL
Calcium (%) 90 (0.1 PRINCIPLES
Magnesium (%) 40 (0.1
Iron (%) 1}3 (0.1
In general, the approach to pollution control could in-
Note. Some minor components (color bodies and o!-#avors) are volve the following stages:
neglected. E Segregation of wastewaters.
E Improved operational procedures/housekeeping.
E Process modi"cation.
emulsifying agents, vitamins, and #avoring materials. The
E Wastewater treatment.
resultant mixture is passed through a chilling unit, called
a votator, where it is cooled to bring about emulsi"cation
and crystallization. The rate of crystallization and the size of
Segregation of Wastewaters
crystals formed play major roles in determining the texture
of the "nished product. The normal practice is to install separate sewers for trade
The full crystallization/chilling system therefore typically e%uent, domestic sewage, and surface water. Segregation of
consists of precrystallizers, one or more chilling systems, the storm water prior to treatment reduces the size and cost
and a postcrystallization section where the cooled emulsion of treatment plants. Domestic sewage should be combined
completes its crystallization and is worked to produce the with trade e%uent after primary and chemical treatment, if
desired texture prior to being packaged. required, but prior to a biological process where full treat-
ment is applied.
SOURCES OF WASTEWATER FROM OIL REFINING

The major sources of wastewaters from edible oil re"ning
are
E Barometric water from deodorization and other vac-
uum systems.
E Acid water from splitting of the soap stock from neut-
ralization.
E A range of low-volume and/or dilute streams including
boiler blowdown, ion exchange regeneration liquors from
treatment of the boiler water, #oor and vehicle washing,
water from de-oiling of bleaching earth, condensate and
tank drainings, and surface water from bunded tank farms.
Spent bleaching earth is disposed of as a solid waste.
SOURCES OF WASTEWATER FROM MARGARINE
PRODUCTION
Wastewater is produced in di!erent intensities from the
main production areas. In modern factories, virtually all
cleaning of process plants is carried out automatically by
cleaning-in-place (CIP) systems. Major wastewater sources
are
E Frequent cleaning of the aqueous phase preparation
area, including raw material storage; milk/whey pasteuriz-
ation; intermediate storage vessels, pipework, and #oors.
Improved Operational Procedures/Housekeeping
Reduction or prevention of pollution at the source
is a key element in any pollution control strategy.
Such measures lead to raw material recovery and reduc-
tion in trade e%uent charges or lower treatment plant
costs.
In the re"nery, bunded areas around oil storage tanks
and road tanker loading areas should be served by local
oil/fat traps from which oil and fat should be recovered. The
bunded area should have a volume equivalent to 110% of
the largest vessel contained. Heating and mixing of raw oil
storage tanks reduces the formation of sediments and conse-
quent oil losses and pollution peaks during tank cleaning.
Condensate should be collected for reuse either in steam
raising or in general washing, and hosepipes should be of
the high-pressure, spring-grip type to reduce e%uent
volume.
In the margarine factory, similar measures can be taken,
but in addition, where automatic cleaning (CIP) of the
closed system consists of a water rinse, detergent wash, and
water wash, there is potential to recycle most of the deter-
gent and to recover the "nal wash water for use in the
preliminary rinse.
 FATS, OILS, AND GREASES 129
TABLE 2 TABLE 3
Comparison of Organic Loads in the Wastewater from E8uent Loads from Centrifuge Re5ning of Soybean Oils with
Centrifuge and Batch Re5ning Di4erent Phosphorous Contents

Volume COD COD TFM Phosphorous content (mg/kg)

Process (m/t) (kg/t) (mg/L) (kg/t)
E%uent/tonne oil 10 100 150 200
Centrifuge 0.2}0.33 2.1}2.7 8000}12500 0.4}0.6
Batch 0.3}0.34 2.1}4.1 6000}10000 0.4}0.6 SO (kg) 1.1 3.1 4.3 5.3

P (kg) 0.01 0.29 0.49 0.58
N (g) 2.26 22.6 33.9 45.2
COD (kg) 0.67 2.12 3.09 4.07

Process Modixcation
There are a number of process modi"cations and devel-
opments which could potentially have a signi"cant e!ect on
the wastewaters generated by oil re"ning, such as centrifuge
neutralization process, superdegumming, deodorizing/strip-
ping, and closed barometric systems.
Centrifuge neutralization process. The type of neutraliza-
tion process, i.e., batch or centrifugal, has an in#uence on
the quality and quantity of wastewater (acid water) produc-
ed from the process. Typically, for water-degummed veg-
etable oils, the neutralization of free fatty acids results in
some loss of neutral oil. The extent of this loss is a!ected by
the amount of alkali used, its contact time with the oil, and
the phospholipid content of the oil itself. In centrifuge neut-
ralization less alkali is used and less wash water is generated
than in the batch process, and the contact time with the
neutral oil is much reduced. The resultant soap stock and
wash water is separated from the oil and treated with
sulfuric acid and steam in a soap-splitting process. This step
produces acid oils and an acidic e%uent (acid water) con-
taining organic material and sodium sulfate from the soap-
splitting reaction. Comparative "gures for the wastewater
organic loads from batch and centrifuge neutralization are
given in Table 2. On average, the polluting load from
centrifugal re"ning of water-degummed oils is approxim-
ately 15% less than that from batch neutralization.
Superdegummed oils. Further reduction in polluting
loads from oil re"ning can be e!ected when the re"ning
process starts with superdegummed rather than water-de-
gummed oil. This process has now been developed to such
an extent that it can be applied to any vegetable oil, irre-
spective of its quality (Segers, 1985). In principle, super-
degumming produces an oil with a low (less than 30 mg/kg
oil) phosphorous level. Such oils enable the re"ner to apply
either a simpli"ed alkaline-re"ning process or even physical
re"ning, which will be discussed later. At low phosphorous
levels, no phosphoric acid pretreatment is used in the re"n-
ing process; hence, far less alkali and acid are required in the
neutralization and soap-splitting stages. This is re#ected by
low amounts of sulfate, phosphorous, and nitrogen in the
e%uent. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the acid
water is also relatively low, since the superdegummed oil
contains small amounts of sugar, and the soap stock pro-
duced from neutralization splits cleanly. The in#uence of the
phosphorous level of the oil on the polluting loads in the
e%uent from centrifuge re"ning is shown in Table 3.
Deodorizing. In conventional operations, alkali re"ning
and bleaching are followed by deodorization, which is carried
out in batch, semicontinuous, and continuous processes and
at temperatures from 170 to 2703C and absolute pressures of
3}6 mm Hg. Potentially polluting material from deodoriz-
ation arises from oil droplets lost due to splashing and
volatile components such as FFA, aldehydes, and ketones,
which are carried from the deodorizer by live steam.
The vapor outlet from batch deodorizers is protected by
a simple fat catcher; however, semicontinuous and continu-
ous deodorizers typically have vapor scrubbers between the
deodorizer and the booster (Dart, 1974). The result is that
less FFA escapes to the barometric condenser, giving rise to
lower polluting loads as shown in Table 4.
Physical re,ning. Another possibility for reducing pol-
luting loads from oils low in phosphorous, either due to
their natural state or due to their being superdegummed, is
to replace neutralization and deodorization with the single-
stage process of physical re"ning. In this process, the FFA
are removed by steam distillation, typically in semicontinu-
ous (SCD) or continuous deodorizers. The result is that
the sulfate and organic polluting load from chemical re"n-
ing can be eliminated for certain oils. Provided that the
TABLE 4
Typical Polluting Loads from Batch and Semicontinuous
Deodorization
Deodorizer COD TFM
conditions treatment Deodorizer outlet (kg/t) (kg/t)
Batch Fat catcher 2.5}7.0 0.5}2.0
(180}1903C)
Semicontinuous Vapor scrubber 0.8}4.0 0.16}0.8
(2403C)
130 ROY WILLEY

deodorizer is served by an e!ective vapor scrubber, the only TABLE 5

source of e%uent would be that in the barometric water, Summary of Wastewater Loads from Major Sources=Post
which should be of the same order as that from conven- Fat Trapping
tional deodorization in a SCD.
Barometric
Barometric systems. Virtually all modern deodorizers Parameter water Acid water Margarine?
use multistage steam ejectors with barometric interconden-
Volume per (m) 0.5}50 0.35}0.5 1.0}1.9
sers to maintain vacuum. Thus, the live steam, ejector steam,
ton oil
and condensable components from the deodorizer are cap- Total fatty (mg/L) 20}10000 500}1000 600}2000
tured in the barometric water. Since the vapor pressure in matter
the barometric condenser has a major e!ect on vacuum COD load (kg/t) 0.8}7.0 0.70}4.1 1.8}5.7
steam consumption, it is advantageous to maintain a low COD (mg/L) 40}14000 2000}8000 1800}5700
Sulfate (mg/L) 3500}20000
temperature in the barometric water. * *
pH * 6.5}8.0 1.5}3.0 6.0}10.5
In principle, there are two means of achieving this:
E The once-through or nonrecirculating system, which is ? Unit loads are expressed per tonne of margarine.
used where a plentiful supply of cold water from a water-
course is available and discharge limits permit.
E A recirculation system with direct cooling over a cool-
processing, and physical re"ning are not applicable in all
circumstances. Often, therefore, the wastewater must be
ing tower or indirect cooling through a heat exchanger. The
treated prior to discharge to meet legislative standards.
increase in volume due to condensation is removed auto-
matically as a concentrated &&bleed.''
In recent years, dry condensing systems have been de- Legislation
veloped which employ a refrigerant to condense the organic
The discharge of trade e%uents from industrial premises
vapors and hence result in very much lower levels of gener-
is controlled by standards imposed by the appropriate auth-
ated wastewater.
ority. The range of components included in these controls
Whereas the choice of system would not a!ect the organic
and the allowable limits for each component are determined
polluting load produced from deodorization, water con-
by whether the wastewaters are discharged to a watercourse
sumption and wastewater volumes can be reduced substan-
or to a sewer.
tially from 3}50 to 0.5}1.0 m/tonne oil.

Discharges to a Water Course

GENERAL WASTEWATER CHARACTERISTICS
Standards can vary considerably and are essentially
In general terms, the most signi"cant polluting loads determined on a local basis by the condition and use of
arise from acid water, barometric water or barometric the receiving water and the degree of dilution that is avail-
water bleed, and cleaning operations within the margarine able. Typical standards for discharges to nontidal waters
factory. are given in Table 6. Table 6 lists those parameters that are
The polluting loads from #oor washing in the re"nery and most relevant to the edible oil industry and commonly
from blowdown and water treatment in the boilerhouse
should represent an insigni"cant fraction of the total or- TABLE 6
ganic load. The sulfate load from water treatment would Trade E8uent Discharge Standards
also be low, typically less than 3% of the sulfate load from
alkali re"ning. Polluting loads from oil modi"cation pro- Typical European standards
cesses should also be very low, arising essentially from Nontidal Sewer
additional deodorization of the modi"ed oil. Parameter river discharges discharges
From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that generaliz-
ations about the volume and composition of the waste- BOD mg/L 15}50 *
waters from an oil re"nery and a margarine factory are SS mg/L 20}50 400}600
TFM mg/L 10}25 40}500
di$cult due to the range of raw materials and processes that TKN mg/L 15}20 *
can be adopted. However, a summary of wastewater loads P mg/L 10 *
from the three major sources is given in Table 5 as a rough Ni mg/L 0.5}2.0 5
guideline. pH Units 5.5}9.5 5.0}10.0
Whereas constant progress is being made to reduce pro- Temp 3C (33C Increase 45
SO mg/L * 300}1500
cessing losses and thus polluting loads, the application S\

mg/L * (1.0}5.0
of developments such as superdegumming, continuous
 FATS, OILS, AND GREASES
controlled. Discharges to tidal and coastal waters have
had, historically, less stringent controls for (biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD) and total fatty matter (TFM)),
nitrogen, phosphorous, and suspended solids, though this
situation is changing in Europe. The move to reduce the
levels of nitrogen and phosphorous in wastewaters in north-
ern Europe is also evident in the standards being applied in
parts of Portugal, Italy, and Spain.
Discharges to a Sewer
In the case of trade e%uent discharges to sewers owned by
the local Authority, the degree and nature of the controls
and standards vary signi"cantly depending upon the fate of
the e%uent. Typically, the Authority exerts control by
a combination of standards and charges. It is usual for
authorities to accept any amount of soluble biodegradable
matter into their sewers, provided that the downstream
treatment has su$cient capacity to cope with it. The con-
trols applied are therefore generally aimed at protecting
personnel working in sewers, the fabric of the sewers them-
selves, and the e%uent treatment plant. Such controls, rel-
evant to edible oil and margarine operations, are detailed in
Table 6.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT
Physical Processes
The degree of treatment required obviously depends
upon local circumstances. Typically, the "rst stage of pre-
treatment is the use of physical processes on individual
wastewater streams to recover free oils and fats. Such treat-
ment is therefore applied separately to barometric water,
acid water, margarine processing wastewater, and, in certain
circumstances, to water in bunded oil tank areas.
The most commonly used physical separation processes
for the treatment of separable oils and fats are fat traps,
tilted plate separators (TPS), and dissolved air #otation
(DAF) units. In addition, centrifuges and electro#otation
systems are occasionally used.
Fat traps. In general terms, a fat trap can be considered
a rectangular or circular vessel through which the waste-
water passes under laminar-#ow conditions at a rate that
allows the fat/oil particles to rise to the surface by the time
that they approach the outlet end of the trap. The separ-
ation principle is based on Stokes' law relating rising velo-
city of a particle to its diameter, and in theory separation
e$ciency is independent of depth:
< "g(p !p)d/18 k,
 
where < is terminal velocity of particle, g is acceleration

due to gravity, p is density of particle, p is density of #uid,

131
d is diameter of particle, and k is absolute viscosity of the
#uid.
In practice, fat traps have a depth of 1.5 m, though if the
accumulation of a bottom sludge is expected, then an addi-
tional 0.5 m would be added to the total liquid depth.
Typical surface loading rates applied are
Margarine wash water max 1.5 m/m/h
Acid water max 1.0 m/m/h
Barometric water max 3}6 m/m/h
Important factors that need to be considered in fat trap
design are:
E Maximum #ow should be used for design purposes.
E Gravity rather than pumped feed to the fat trap minim-
izes emulsi"cation.
E The inlet and outlet of the fat trap should be carefully
designed to give good distribution and prevent short
circuiting.
E Generally, vertical slotted ba%es are used for the inlet
of the rectangular vessels and central feeding with radial-
#ow ba%es for circular vessels.
E The length to breadth ratio for rectangular traps
should be between 3 and 6 m with a minimum length of 3 m.
E Top and bottom layers of fat/sludge should be kept
thin, preferably by automatic scraper systems which should
be time controlled.
E The outlet weir should be adjustable for "ne setting of
the operating liquid level.
E The vessel should be readily accessible to facilitate
maintenance and cleaning.
E Due consideration must be given to materials of
construction. In general, they should be resistant to oil
and fat. Acid water fat traps should be resistant to high
sulfate concentrations, low pH, and temperatures up to
703C.
Tilting plate separators. The TPS was developed in the
petrochemical industry and takes advantage of the fact
that it is surface area rather than depth that is the impor-
tant factor in oil separation. The introduction of inclined
plates into a vessel provides many parallel gravity separ-
ators with low liquid depth, but a high surface area. Typi-
cally, the TPS could occupy less than 10% of the area of
a conventional fat trap. An additional advantage is that
these units are package plants, which can be moved to
accommodate site developments. There are, however,
certain problems with edible oils and fats that must be
considered, namely
E The narrow gaps (20 mm) between the plates may be
susceptible to fouling if solid or semisolid fat is present in
the e%uent.
E Removal of the plate pack for cleaning is time consum-
ing and requires craneage.
132 ROY WILLEY
E Where the wastewater is pumped to the unit, careful
selection of pumps and #ow control is required to prevent
surging and undesirable #uctuations in liquid depth.
For a typical plate pack dimension of 1.75;1.0;1.0 m,
there would be an e!ective separation area of 56 m. Design
surface loading rates onto this separation area would be
0.25}0.3 m/m/h, which would be equivalent to a surface
loading rate of roughly 6}7 m/m/h on the projected area
of a plate pack tilted at 453.
Dissolved air -otation. The principle behind DAF is that
air is dissolved into wastewater under a pressure of about
6 barg. This air-saturated liquor is then passed through
nozzles into a rectangular or circular vessel. Due to the
pressure drop, the dissolved air is released from solution in
the form of microbubble (60- to 70-lm-diameter) clouds.
The microbubbles attach to the surface of the fat/oil par-
ticles and increase their rate of rise. As a result, typical
surface loading rates for DAF units are 3}6 m/m/h.
Generally, recycling of defatted e%uent at up to 50% of
the raw wastewater #ow is used as the air carrier to achieve
an air to solids ratio of 0.005}0.08 (w/w). A consideration in
the design of DAF systems is thus the temperature of the
wastewater, since at elevated temperatures the solubility of
air is signi"cantly reduced. In the case of dissolution at
4 barg, a decrease in the wastewater temperature from 35
to 203C would result in a 42% increase in air released
at atmospheric pressure. In the case of acid water, a sepa-
rate stream such as barometric water could be required as
the air carrier, due to the elevated temperatures of the acid
water.
Performance of gravity separators. Physical treatment
in gravity separators should remove 95% of free-#oating
(separable) fat and oil.
Further Treatment
There may be a further "ve principal process stages in-
volved in wastewater treatment, and these would generally
be applied as follows:
E Flow and load balancing.
E pH control.
E Chemical treatment.
E Biological treatment.
E Sludge dewatering.
It is not possible within the scope of this paper to give
details of every process. However, a brief description of each
stage should highlight the extent to which technology is
being applied to the treatment of wastewaters from edible
oil processing.
Flow and load balancing. Generally, the most cost e!ec-
tive approach to onsite e%uent treatment, downstream of
localized fat/oil separation, is to combine the major trade
e%uents, particularly when a closed barometric system is
adopted. Due to the signi"cant variations in #ow and or-
ganic load produced from a combined re"nery and margar-
ine site, it is necessary to provide balancing in the form of
a vessel with a hydraulic residence time ranging from 8 to
12 h. The contents would be fully mixed, the liquid depth
would be variable down to a minimum of 40}60%, and
preliminary pH control would be carried out at this stage.
pH control and chemical treatment. Fine-tuning of the pH
may be required prior to chemical treatment, discharge to
sewer, or downstream biological treatment. This would be
carried out by proportional and integral control in one or
two completely mixed vessels, depending upon the gradient
of the titration curve. Generally, for mixed e%uents, only
a single stage is required downstream of the balance tank.
Chemical treatment may be used to reduce the TFM to
low levels prior to discharge to sewer (see Table 6 for
standards) or prior to a biological treatment stage. Such
treatment uses aluminium sulfate, ferric chloride, or more
usually, lime, to break the fat emulsion and coagulate the fat
particles which can be readily separated by #otation or
sedimentation. The rate of settlement or #otation can often
be improved by a second-stage #occulation. This involves
the addition of low levels of polyelectrolyte (0.5}5.0 mg/L)
to the wastewater once coagulation has taken place. Typical
performance "gures for chemical treatment with lime are
given in Table 7.
Biological treatment. There are two forms of biological
treatment: aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) and anaerobic
(in the absence of oxygen).
E Anaerobic treatment. Anaerobic wastewater treatment
is conducted in enclosed vessels and the major product of
the biological degradation is an o!-gas consisting of approx
80% methane and 20% carbon dioxide. The anaerobic
process will typically achieve 70}80% COD removal and as
such it will not enable the standards for discharge to an
inland river to be met (see Table 6). The process has the
advantages of producing lower levels of sludge than
the aerobic process and being less energy intensive. In
the presence of high levels of sulfate the biological reaction
can change to generate dissolved sul"des as opposed to
TABLE 7
Typical Performance Levels for Lime Treatment
Untreated Treated
wastewater wastewater Removal
Parameter (mg/L) (mg/L) (%)
BOD 1880 760 60
COD 2080 1260 40
TFM 600 40 93
SS 390 70 83
 FATS, OILS, AND GREASES
methane. The resultant sul"de exerts a COD and reduces
the removal e$ciency, requiring further downstream pro-
cessing. As such, anaerobic treatment would not be con-
sidered for wastewater treatment if there is a soap-splitting
operation within the factory using sulfuric acid.
E Aerobic treatment. Aerobic biological treatment is re-
quired to meet the standards for discharge to an inland
river, which are shown in Table 6. The application of the
activated sludge process in this context is now well estab-
lished in the edible oil "eld. Important process design con-
siderations include
E =astewater composition. The combined wastewater
from oil re"ning and margarine production tends to be
de"cient in nitrogen for aerobic biological treatment. In
general, for a typical BOD:N ratio of 100:5, the raw waste-
water would provide roughly half of the nitrogen required.
Excessive TFM concentrations in the raw wastewater can
also lead to poor performance, therefore, process designs
tend to aim for less than 200 mg/L.
E Biological loading rate (B¸R) and reactor conxgura-
tion. The biological loading rate is a key design parameter
for activated sludge. The BLR is the mass of organic mater-
ial (BOD) applied per unit mass of bacteria (MLSS) per day.
Typically, good performance requires a BLR of less than
0.15 kg BOD/kg MLSS/day and a plug-#ow reactor design.
Under well-designed conditions, treated e%uent BOD
and SS concentrations of 20 and 30 mg/L can readily be
obtained.
Sludge treatment. Sludge in the context of this paper is
considered to be that produced from chemical and/or biolo-
gical treatment systems. Typically, the production of sludge
from chemical and biological treatment processes would be,
respectively, 1.25 and 1.0 kg dry solids per m of e%uent.
There is a wide range of sludge dewatering systems avail-
able. When appropriate equipment is selected, it is necessary
to start at the identi"cation of the restrictions governing
ultimate disposal.
The main process types used are "ltration in a plate and
frame press, "ltration in a belt press, and centrifugation.
Since the sludges are produced as very wet slurries, i.e.,
chemical sludge at 3% dry solids and biological sludge
0.5}1% dry solids, it is often advantageous to prethicken in
133
TABLE 8
Dewatering of Sludges from Edible Oil Wastewater Treatment
Cake dry solids
Process (% w/w)
Plate and frame press 25}40
Belt press 15}30
Centrifuge 15}25
a gravity thickener or DAF plant. Gravity thickening of
lime sludge should achieve 6% dry solids, whereas DAF
treatment, with polymer addition, of activated sludge can
achieve 4% dry solids. In so doing, the capital cost and
labor costs for a dewatering plant can be signi"cantly re-
duced.
In the case of the dewatering process, it is di$cult to
predict the "nal moisture content of the cake; therefore,
pilot plant trials are advisable. As a rough guide, dewatering
of sludges conditioned with polyelectrolyte would produce
the results shown in Table 8.
CONCLUSIONS
The edible oil processing industry has a history of ap-
plying a range of onsite wastewater treatment techniques to
meet legislative standards. The wastewaters produced are
amenable to physical, chemical, and biological treatment
and are very biodegradable. It is clear that the degree and
type of treatment are dependent upon local circumstances.
However, the most e!ective approach to pollution control is
one that emphasizes process development to minimize
losses at the source.
REFERENCES
Segers, J. C. (1985). Possibilities and limitations for decreasing the environ-
mental load from the re"ning of edible oils and fats. Fetter Seifen
Anstrichmittel 87, 541.
Dart, M. C. (1974). Wastewaters from the manufacture of edible oils and
margarine. Proceeding of IWPC, Symposium Jan. 1974 on &&Treatment
of Wastes in the Food and Drink Industry,'' University of Newcastle
Upon Tyne.