Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 23 ISSUE 4
Written by Cecilia NEAGU, Andrei Radu IOVA, Daniela CREȚU, Elena LASCĂR

Biological treatment is the technological process by which organic impurities in wastewater are transformed by a culture of microorganisms into harmless degradation products (CO₂, H₂O, other products) and new cell mass (biomass). The microorganism culture is then dispersed in the reaction volume of the sewage treatment plant, forming activated sludge. The aim of this work was to present the efficiency of wastewater treatment from the food industry using the operating principle of a biological activated sludge treatment plant in a meat processing plant. The methods of determining the indicators that highlight the quality of wastewater from the meat processing unit were those according to the STAS in force, and the determinations were carried out in the laboratory of the Călărași Environment Protection Agency. Following the analysis of the 5 wastewater samples taken in the period March-July 2023, it could be remarked that regardless of the volume of wastewater entering the treatment plant and the amount of kg of meat processed per day, the treated water leaving the treatment plant meets the requirements for discharge into the natural outfall according to NTPA - 001, except for the indicator total phosphorus, which at concentrations higher than 35 mg/L in the wastewater before treatment cannot be brought below the maximum permitted value of 1 mg/L for discharge into the natural outfall. The efficiency of the treatment plant, analyzed for 10 indicators is good, ranging from 70.22 - 99.63%. So, biological treatment with activated sludge is an efficient treatment technology in such a unit, inexpensive, clean and environmentally friendly.

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