Treatment of slaughterhouse wastewater using waste derived biochar: experiment and modelling

Abstract Sustainable and ecologically friendly discharge of slaughterhouse wastewater requires effective treatment. The chicken slaughter house wastewater (CHSW) samples exhibited elevated organic contents with the chemical oxygen demand (COD) (2,111.33 ± 31.63 mg L −1 ), total organic carbon (TOC) (717.64 ± 31.63 mg L −1 ), biological oxygen demand (BOD 5 ) (1,350 ± 24.49 mg L −1 ), ammonical-N (77.03 ± 0.24 mg L −1 ), phosphate (4.05 ± 0.02 mg L −1 ) and TSS (833 ± 12.72 mg L −1 ). The present research investigated the treatment of CHSW using biochar, derived from a market waste (waste corncob), employing H 3 PO 4 as the impregnating agent in the carbonization process. The removal of TOC, COD, phosphate, BOD 5 , and ammoniacal-N were found as 85 ± 5 %, 84.51 ± 2.32 %, 15.70 ± 0.23 %, 79.54 ± 2.27 %, and 74.03 ± 1.11 % respectively, when 40 mL CHSW was treated with 5 g L −1 biochar (size: 253 μm) for 120 min at its own pH. A 2-D transient convective-diffusive model based on a numerical method was employed and validated. A single-factor local sensitivity analysis was also conducted using the relative marginal value (RMV).