Dear Atabong, I think that is a huge problem with pollution you are trying to tackle there and I really want to commend your effort. I just want to say as you look for a solution on best filtration options, you should pay much attention to sustainability of the initiative too. Here, I am mostly looking at affordability of the end product relative to market situation of compost in Cameroon in relation to running cost. I do not know how competitive the market is, but its a very important factor.

As you rightly point out Dean, I am trying to start an experimental phase at the laboratory experimental site with the results obtained from my Ph.D. I will turn to funders and the stakeholders with my results in order to get funded for implementation since everyone sees the impact of this wastewater on the environment and health.

Thanks for the info

Thanks, Joe, will go through it and surely contact them.

Just as a side note, since I recently shortly looked into a similar topic: if the slaughtherhouse is processing ruminants (cows, sheep etc.) any resulting use, even including food crops grown on land with processed compost / irrigation, will be restricted for import into EU countries as far as I can tell.

Might be relevant or not in this case, and being a left over of the BSE crisis this restriction is being slowly relaxed...

Of course blood is very nutrient rich, especially N and would be a very good fertiliser for irrigating to crops. Noting that pathogens break down in soil very rapidly, why is the slaughterhouse effluent discharged to water instead of irrigated to land? What is the land use and soil types/climate of the land surrounding the slaughterhouses and what are the crops grown there? Its pretty bad discharging this to waterways, the nitrogen content alone will cause serious issues, let alone the oxygen demand it will generate.
Vermifiltration will treat the effluent and remove pathogens and oxygen demand. It will not (and should not) remove nitrogen, so if the intention is to continue to discharge to waterways then treatment should include denitrification (anaerobic) step. If the intention is to utilise the resource for irrigating crops (the only sensible option) then vermifiltration is the lowest cost option.
16 cubes of effluent a day is not much at all, I'd estimate a media capacity of 20 cubic metres is required for a second-generation reactor, which would only cost about US $10,000. Add solar panels, lithium phosphate battery and recirculation pump $4000 you'd have a pretty special laboratory for a phD. What I'm interested in is whether there is a market for nutrient-rich pathogen-free irrigation water... and whether any of the agencies supposedly responsible for improving sanitation will fund you.

I have found the attached study which might be relevant from Kenya. Maybe you could contact the authors for some direct advice?

That sounds like a lot to me. I would think a reed bed would be the lowest cost effective option, but I do not know specifics. I have seen quite a large one in operation but do not know if it could work with that volume of blood.

Thanks to you all.

The wastewater here is principally constituted of blood. I agree also with Dean on vermifilters. In the context of Cameroon, most of the biodegradable solid wastes produced during the process are mostly used to enrich food for livestock by farmers.

During my Msc I studied the impact of this slaughterhouse wastewater and I quantified the amount produced.

Yaounde the capital city of Cameroon has one main slaughterhouse, Livestock Development Cooperation (LDC) that slaughters about 40,000-50,000 cattle head per year, then uses an average of 70,000,000 liters of water and produces about 6,000m3 of effluent per year, discharging this raw effluent into the Ako'o watercourse that drains into the Mfoundi main river line of Yaounde due to non-functional and abandoned wastewater treatment plant set up after independence. Similarly, the Mvog-Ada informal slaughterhouse among several informal slaughterhouses in the markets of Yaounde generates and discharges about 20m3/month of wastewater from pig slaughtering into the Ewo’e watercourse without any treatment. The slaughterhouse wastewater from LCD was found to contain 4.2×106 CFU/100mL, 1.1×106 CFU/100mL and 2.2×106 CFU/100mL of total coliforms, Salmonella and fecal streptococci respectively while the informal slaughterhouse of Mvog-Ada, Yaounde was found to contain about 1.9×106 CFU/100 mL of fecal coliforms and 6.1×105 CFU/100 mL of fecal streptococci.

So, it is really according to me a serious issue that needs to be addressed and low-cost technology will be ideal for implementation

Dear Atabong:
Originator of querry needing a solution 28606 - 08.12,

Responses from Joe Turner and Goeco. We are appreciative of them.

Atabong - Can briefly consolidate and plan to arrive at a feasible pilot plan.

Source seggregation is a must.
ie All matter be it be solid or liquid needs to be dealt with after an assessment process.

If composting is preferred for solids and liquid slurry ( thick type) and blood , may be done on a set pit- process ie anerobic, then aerobic, in the last process can introduce worms .
Pl ensure that the waste matter is semi - digested for worms to take it up further. Worms if found profuse, it indicates good quality of treatment.

When having more liquid- water, can have reed bed for phyto remediation process.
Pl keep HRT - 6 to 8 days in beds.
Foodder grass can be harvested for farm produce -
cattle. goat. poultry Etc..
A lot of R&D work needs to be done, but can be done very well.

Well wishes.
Prof Ajit Seshadri. INDIA .

I agree, it isn't good if it is going into a waterway - but there are materials from a slaughterhouse that are worth composting. I guess the problem here is that we don't know what the wastewater described actually consists of.

As Dean says, if it is mostly water with blood, then a filter (or reed bed?) might make more sense than a compost heap.

If it is a thick slurry/mixture of faeces and blood and other things, composting might well be a good option.

Slaughterhouse wastewater really shouldn't be discharged to waterways. I'm not sure why you would want to moisten compost with wastewater, but I would suggest that wastewater should be treated and then used to irrigate crops. The plant nutrients are valuable and nutrient rich water is a resource. The wastewater would need to be treated first and the lowest cost option is vermifiltration. This is described in a wikipedia article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermifilter