Evaluation of an Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Process for the Organic Matter Removal from Dairy Wastewater

The dairy industries are associated with the generation of large volumes of wastewater. The water in these industries is used throughout all steps like cleaning, sanitization, heating, cooling and floor washing. One of the principal characteristic of this wastewater is the high organic matter bio and non biodegradable. After sampling and analyzing the wastewater discharge, the ratio BOD5/COD= 0.39 suggests a difficult problem for the wastewater disposal. Moreover the reuse potential with this quality is null. In this paper authors report the first steps to evaluate an advance oxidation process (AOP) for farḿs wastewater No. 1 of "La Cuenca Lechera de Ensenada Baja California", using a DSA electrode of Ti/IrO2/Ta2O5. The characterization of wastewater used extraction by partitions methods indicating the presence of organic compounds like fatty acids, esters, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, amines and other nitrogen-containing compounds in such proportions that a AOP seems to have good prospect of success. The electrochemical study using cyclic voltammetry indicated the presence of oxidizable organic compounds and using differential pulse voltammetry also direct oxidations seems to be attributable to nitrogen compounds, among others.