Case Study for the Start-Up of the First Full-Scale Low-Rate Anerobic Digester for Dairy Wastewater in Brazil

A full-scale ADI-BVF® anaerobic reactor has been in operation at Laticínios Bela Vista’s (LBV) main production plant in Goiás, Brazil, since August 2015. The main LBV plant is one of the largest dairy producing plants in Brazil, and its wastewater is unique in that it combines typical dairy production wastewater with a high-strength whey stream, and the plant’s reject product stream (i.e. raw milk not suitable to be used).The plant has experienced past expansions and is anticipating further increases in production in the future. As a result, LBV approached ADI Systems to upgrade its existing treatment facility with the installation of an anaerobic treatment system to both treat the main plant’s combined wastewater stream and produce biogas to offset wood used in the plant’s boilers. This system is the ADI-BVF® reactor, a low-rate anaerobic technology.The anaerobic portion of the treatment plant was commissioned in August 2015 and is currently treating an average of 2,950 m3/d of combined wastewater at an average COD concentration of 6,000 mg/l. The system has been achieving over 95% COD removal and over 70% TSS destruction, without requiring any pretreatment to the wastewater. The overall treatment system, including aerobic polishing, achieves over 98% COD removal with a final turbidity of less than 20 NTU. The plant currently generates over 10,000 m3 of biogas per day, the vast majority of which is sent to the plant’s boilers for utilization.