Waste T r e a t m e n t in the Danish D a i r y I n d u s t r y

P. RONKILDE POULSEN
The Danish Government Research Institute for Dairy Industry
Hillerdd, Denmark

ABSTRACT different, often characterized by fortuitousness

The Danish Government Research In- and mystery. This was primarily due to inex-
stitute began research in dairy waste perience in the function of the plant, lack of
treatment about 40 yr ago. The purpose measuring methods, and lack of a real basis for
was to serve the dairy industry continu- evaluating the effect of the plant.
ously with information about progress in Only 3 yr later in 1938, a research program
methods of waste treatment, and through on treatment of dairy effluent was initiated at
specialized advisory service to support the Danish Government Research Institute for
individual dairy plants in their efforts to Dairy Industry. Activities in that field have
keep step with progressive public de- been part of our research program since. Over
mands for a better environment. A brief the years there has been considerable research
outline of environmental legislation, em- activity caused by changes in the structure of
phasizing the official guidelines for dis- the dairy industry and the community as a
charge of waste, will be given together whole. The actual situation is dominated by the
with a brief survey of the load of pollu- following three aspects: (a) Increased risk of
tion in Danish dairy effluents. Technical heavier detrimental pollution; (b) Increased
possibilities for restricting unavoidable sensitivity to the ecological balance, and (c)
pollution to a minimum will be men- Increased concern for the environment. Today
tioned. Recent results from experiments we have a comprehensive knowledge about the
at the research institute with different problems of waste water treatment, and I am
waste treatment systems will be summa- quite sure that if a question like the one in
rized and their adaptability to dairy waste 1935 by the dairy manager were published in
under prevailing conditions evaluated. our dairy journal today, the person in question
would be overwhelmed with offers and guaran-
In a Danish dairy journal from 1935 the tees.
following simple and serious question was
raised by a dairy manager. "What is the price
for an effluent treatment plant for our dairy, Legislative Aspects
and is it reliable and efficient?" He did not As far back as the 17th century Denmark
receive an answer. has had special legislation aimed at protecting
This characterizes the situation in Denmark streams and lakes. In 1949 revised legislation
about 40 yr ago. Knowledge and experience in was passed whereby every outlet of waste water
treatment and neutralizing of dairy effluent was must be authorized by special courts of justice.
limited because the subject had not been Waste water discharge was not allowed to cause
investigated systematically, technologically, and general inconvenience or to disturb the natural
scientifically. However, several waste water state and balance of the streams. From case to
treatment plants, set up according to different case these courts of justice were supported by
principles, already had been running for some biologists and other experts.
years. A dairy effluent irrigation plant was built In 1 9 7 4 - 2 5 years l a t e r - a f t e r several years
as early as 1883, and a number of septic tank of intense public debate about environmental
plants were built in the years around 1910. The protection, new legislation was passed dealing
reason no answer was given to the simple with all aspects of environmental pollution.
question above was most likely that the practi- According to this legislation a complete official
cal experience from these plants were widely authorization of every firm, regarding its efflu-
ent sources and purifying efforts, is required.
The firms have to give a detailed account of all
Received August 16, 1976. their possible pollution.

1187
1188 POULSEN

TABLE 1. Officially recommended acceptable limits of pollution for different categories of recipients.

A B C D
Lakes Streams Inlets Sea

pH 6.5-8.5 6.5 8.5 6-9 .

Temperature (C) 30 30 30 3 '5
BOD5 (mg/liter) 20 20 100 400
Phosphorus (rag/liter) 1 ... 1 ...
Ammonia-N (mg/liter) 2 . . . . . . . . .

As basis for judgment the standards in Table About 20 yr ago there were approximately
1 have been recommended, making allowance 1500 dairy plants in Denmark--most of them
for the pollution quantities which can be relatively small, with an average milk intake of
accepted by the different types of environ- 3 to 10 million kg per year. As their production
mental regions. pattern was rather uniform, pollution from
Payment for neutralizing pollution is subject effluent could with a fair approximation be
to the basic principle that the one who causes a estimated from milk intake.
loss must pay the expenses for treatment. In Today the number of dairy plants has been
certain cases the municipality pays 10 to 15%, reduced to less than 400 due to centralization
and sometimes a discount is allowed for severe- and rationalizing efforts of the dairy industry.
ly polluting industries, with a so-called industry This means that the annual milk intake per
tariff for the calculation of the expenses. An plant now is about 20 to 50 million kg, and at
example: Industry tariff = normal tariff (i + the same time the production of the dairies has
200)/600, where i = degree of pollution in the become specialized.
industry effluent (BODs). Two years ago the Danish Government
As effluents from normal households are Research Institute for Dairy Industry analyzed
usually calculated on 300 BODs, this offer to the effluent from 34 dairy plants. The results
the industry is rather favorable. Since the (Fig. 1) show the relationship between annual
environmental law-complex was brought into milk intake and actual pollution in the effluent.
force in 1974, a fixed amount has been granted This relationship, however, is not clear and for
from the government to be divided as subsidies several reasons could hardly be expected to be.
to activities limiting pollution. Cheese production accounts for the heaviest
pollution compared with other dairy products.
The Load of Pollution in
Dairy Effluents The reason is that cheese whey is a cheap
by-product and often is handled carelessly.
The brief statistics in Table 2 give an idea of
Special attention should be paid to the final
Danish dairying.
pressing of cheese from which whey most often
goes directly into the sewer.
TABLE 2. Danish dairying. Another critical point in cheese production
is washing, normally carried out before waxing.
Number of dairy farms 58,000 Table 3 shows the order of pollution from these
Number of dairy cows 1,083,000 two sources.
Number of cooperative dairies 294 The total effluent pollution from cheese
Number of private dairies 76 production easily sums up to 4 g BOD per kg
Total production of (1000 tons) milk treated. In view of expenses of effluent
Milk 4,612 treatment, pollution of this order is not accept-
Butter 136 able. According to our experiences it can be
Cheese 151 reduced greatly by carefully avoiding waste of
Market milk 683 whey during drainage of the cheese vat and by
Canned milk and milk powder,
calculated as milk 1,057 collecting the whey from cheese presses.
In our detailed studies of the origin of

Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 60, No. 7

 OUR INDUSTRY TODAY 1189

/ reduce the waste to about half this figure.

/?
400
For milk collecting and separating plants we
300
have found pollution small, i.e., about .5 g BOD
200 per kg milk received. In proportion to the
amount of milk treated our observations show
100
that the heaviest pollution in dairy effluent
80 comes from small plants and big factories.
66 Apparently dairies of medium s i z e - a b o u t 10 to
20 million kg milk per y e a r - w i t h a limited
40

30
staff-seem to have the best possibilities of
controlling their production and are most capa-
20
ble of keeping product losses and pollution of
the effluent within reasonable limits.
The extent of measures taken to avoid waste

/" during production is of utmost importance as

well as skill and conscientiousness of the
personnel working in the dairy industry.

Experience with Different Treatment

Methods for Dairy Waste

Dairy waste has had a bad reputation, not

3 a 6 8 10 20 30 40
only among worshippers of nature and anglers
but also among engineers and builders of
M I L L I O N KG (m~k year) effluent treatment plants. Directly dumped into
lakes and streams it was considered to act like
FIG. 1. Relation between size of dairy factories poison, and ill effects were said to be found
and their effluent pollution. when dairy effluents were discharged into
plants constructed for domestic sewage.
Thanks to intensive studies of the distinctive
character of dairy waste, we now know why
pollution in dairy effluents we also generally and how it should be handled. Specialized
confirmed that emptying milk tanks, pipelines, research into treatment of dairy waste was first
and equipment prior to rinsing causes consider- of all to prove that a complete biological
able pollution. Some sort of initial sprinkling purification of dairy effluent is possible and
and collection of this waste is recommended for secondly to point out the most suitable meth-
further treatment for fodder. ods of treatment.
In butter production attention is drawn to It is fair to add that perhaps the most
the drainage of buttermilk as the most critical important effect of this research has been the
point. On an average the handling of liquid milk changes in public opionion about dairy waste
and manufacture of butter result in pollution of and improvement of relations between the
2.0 to 2.5 g BOD per kg milk treated. However, dairies and the public administration, including
we found it possible by simple measures to the staff of engineers and technicians, con-

TABLE 3. Pollution from pressing and washing cheese.

30,000 kg milk daily converted to 3,200 kg cheese

Eq. persons
kg/day kg BOD/day number

Whey from cheese pressing 500-1,000 25-50 400-800

Effluent from cheese washing 4,500 20-25 300-400

Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 60, No. 7

 ",O
O

T A B L E 4. C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of d i f f e r e n t t r e a t m e n t m e t h o d s for d a i r y e f f l u e n t s ,
<
o
Expenses
g Space
E f f i c i e n c y r e d u c t i o n in require- Invest- Operation
o BOD N P ments ment costs
-q

Pre-treatment
Equalizing tanks X X X X X X
R e c i r c u l a t i o n on t r i c k l i n g filters
Filter medium: hrocken stones XX XX XX XX XX XX
©
F i l t e r m e d i u m : plast balls XX XX XX X XX XX
F i l t e r m e d i u m : F l o c n r etc. XXX XX XX X XX XX
Chemical precipitation X XX XXX X XX XX t~

Complete treatment
A c t i v a t e d sludge t r e a t m e n t
Short time aeration X X X X XX XX
Long time aeration XXX XX X XX XX XX
Extended long time aeration XXX XX X XXX XXX XX
Spray irrigation XXX XXX XXX XXX X XX
Stabilizing ponds X XX X XXX X X
A l t e r n a t i n g d o u b l e t r i c k l i n g filters XX XX XX XX XXX XX

X = Small, XX = M o d e r a t e , X X X = High.
 OUR INDUSTRY TODAY 1191

cerned with and responsible for municipal pretreatment and complete treatment of waste.
sewage systems. In the first category are tanks or basins for
I estimate that today about 90% of the equalizing the effluent from the dairy over 24
Danish dairies are connected with municipal h, recirculation on trickling filters, followed by
sewage systems. Personnel from the government a tank for sedimentation and chemical precipi-
institute are advising the dairies as well as the tation. In the second category are the activated
municipal authorities to bring about reasonable sludge treatment plant with different aeration
technical and economic arrangements for joint activity and treatment periods, varying from 6
waste treatments. h to several days, and also the spray irrigation
During the past years several different treat- of dairy effluents. To this c a t e g o r y - b u t of
ment systems have been investigated at the minor importance in Denmark-also belong the
Danish Government Research Institute for waste stabilization ponds and the alternating
Dairy Industry, and the results and conclusions double trickling plants.
have been published in our bulletins. In Table 4 is a simplified outline of the
It might be relevant to distinguish between results of our experience with the different
the following two different aims of treatment, types of treatment.

Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 60, No. 7