Resumen

HERRERA, Lenín et al. BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF EFFLUENTS FROM CRAB PROCESSING INDUSTRIES USING AN ACTIVATED SLUDGE SYSTEM. INCI [online]. 2007, vol.32, n.7, pp.490-495. ISSN 0378-1844.

Due to the lack of basic data, especially biokinetic constants, in order to design a treatment plant to process industrial wastewater from crab and shrimp processing, wastewater from a blue crab processing industry located in the San Francisco Municipality, Zulia State, Venezuela, was studied. The flow of effluent per kg of processed crab was calculated to be 7.81L/kg and the average flow of the crab industry was determined to be 214775L/day. This paper presents the characterization of four different effluents from the crab plant, and this showed that all of them did not fulfill the quality guidelines established by the Venezuelan Environmental Norm. Therefore, it is necessary to install a wastewater treatment plant in order to achieve the required quality level of the effluent. After wastewater characterization, an activated sludge treatment system was simulated at laboratory scale, using four biological continuous reactors with different residence times (8, 12, 16 and 20h). The biokinetic constants were calculated as K= 0.0046L/(mgDQO·d) with a correlation coefficient of 91,4%; Y_T= 0.5442mgSSV/mgDQO and K_d= 0.1175/day, both with correlations of 93.9%.

Palabras clave : Aguas Residuales; Cangrejos; Constantes Biocinéticas; Lodos Activados.