Cattle Wastewater Treatment Using Almond Hull and Cherry Pit as Coagulants–Flocculants

Abstract

Cattle wastewater (CW) is a potential source of several environmental problems. The high pollutant load of CW and the lack of adequate treatments contribute to the entrance of different contaminants into ecosystems. In this work, CW was treated using a coagulation–flocculation (CF) process. This work aimed to optimise the CF process with the application of almond hulls (AHs) and cherry pits (CPs) as coagulants to treat CW. The results showed that it was possible to achieve chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity and total suspended solids (TSS) removal of 39.1, 38.3 and 52.9%, respectively, for AHs (pH 3.0 and 0.1 g/L) and 42.4, 88.8 and 22.3%, respectively, for CPs (pH 3.0 and 0.1 g/L). It can be concluded that treating CW via the CF process with the application of AHs and CPs as coagulants is a sustainable and clean process. Also, the valorisation of food by-products through wastewater treatment is effective in promoting sustainable cattle production.

Keywords

• livestock wastewater treatment
• by-products
• sustainable production