Removal of melanoidin from baker yeast plant wastewater: A comparative study on chemical and biological processes

Dark brown color and large quantities of chemical oxygen demand (COD) are challenging for the successful treatment of molasses-based baker's yeast (BY) wastewater. In this study, the sequential biological and chemical coagulation processes were compared in terms of their ability to remove color and COD from industrial molasses-based BY wastewater. In the sequential chemical-biological processes, using the desired dosages of ferric chloride (FeCl3, 4 g/L) and calcium oxide (CaO, 2 % (w/v)) as coagulating agents, the color and COD removal were 90.6 % and 57 %, respectively. The COD removal of the samples from chemical pre-treated wastewater in an aerated biological reactor (reactor A) was improved to 78 %. In sequential biological-chemical processes with extended aeration (bioreactor A), the COD and color removal were 89.1 % and 93.7 %, respectively. The chemical post-treating of the effluent of the combined anaerobic-aerobic system (reactor C) led to COD and color removal of 80.8 % and 94.65 %, respectively. According to experimental findings, the chemical post-treatment was more efficient than the chemical pre-treatment process. This study offers new insights into the utilization of combined systems for the efficient removal of color and COD from industrial wastewater. [Display omitted] •Melanoidin removal from industrial baker's yeast wastewater was studied.•The sequence of biological/chemical coagulation processes were compared.•Higher COD and color removal was achieved using chemical post-treatment than chemical pre-treatment process.•94.65 % color removal via sequential biological intermittent aeration-coagulation•89 % COD removal via sequential biological aeration-coagulation