Real-time in-situ measurement of haemoglobin in wastewater

摘要

The meat processing industry generates large volumes of relatively high load wastewater.nIn New Zealand and Australia this wastewater is often pre-treated on site and then dischargednto environmental waters or municipal sewers. Owing to the limited number of water qualitynparameters which can be measured in real-time it is often difficult for industry to optimisentreatment processes or public bodies to monitor for water-quality compliance. Abattoirnwastewater is often observed to be red in colour, owing to the presence of haemoglobin.nMeasurement of visible light absorption spectra of wastewater grab samples has for some timenprovided information about blood concentration. However such grab sampling techniques arenpiecemeal and cannot provide instantaneous time resolved signals which are required for processncontrol or comprehensive monitoring. In this work an in-situ UV/VIS spectrometer is used toncontinuously determine the concentration of haemoglobin in wastewater arriving for treatment atntwo different Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs). The data is of high temporal resolution-ndata recorded at the distant WWTPs allows for identification process events, such as the end ofnshift wash downs.