ABSTRACT
Industrial dairy wastewaters are generally high strength wastes containing soluble, colloidal and suspended solids with a high concentration of BOD. The more than 5,000 industrial dairy plants in this country have a large waste load to treat and dispose of. If discharged into the municipal sewer system, such wastewaters often produce a high pollution load which is unacceptable to the Publically Owned Treatment Works [POTW]. This then results in a requirement for industrial pretreatment of such wastes before discharge to the collection system. Chemical coagulation-flocculation followed by sedimentation, which plays an important role in many solid liquid separation schemes and is widely used in water and wastewater treatment may be used in the pretreatment of dairy wastewaters in some instances. This method can remove BOD, COD and suspended solids from the waste stream and may be economically feasible for some of the industrial dairy product facilities which are located in urban areas.
