Constructed Wetlands for Industrial Wastewater Treatment

9Dairy Wastewater Treatment with Constructed Wetlands: Experiences from Belgium, the Netherlands and Greece

C.S. Akratos⁷, D. Van Oirschot², A.G. Tekerlekopoulou¹, Dimitrios V. Vayenas^3,4 and Alexandros I. Stefanakis^5,6,8

¹Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Patras, Agrinio, Greece

²RietLand bvba, Van Aertselaerstraat 70, Minderhout, Belgium

³Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

⁴Institute of Chemical Engineering and High Temperature Chemical Processes (FORTH/ICE-HT), Platani, Patras, Greece

⁵Bauer Resources GmbH, BAUER-Strasse 1, Schrobenhausen, Germany

⁶Department of Engineering, German University of Technology in Oman, Athaibah, Sultanate of Oman

⁷Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece

⁸Bauer Nimr LLC, Muscat, Oman

9.1 Introduction

Modern dairy farming involves automated milking, in so-called milking parlors. The cows are milked by a milking machine which extracts milk with a vacuum system. The milk is transported through a system of pipes called the milk line towards the milk cooling tank. The milk line is cleaned twice a day (after milking) and the milk cooling tank after each time the milk is collected by the dairy company.

The most widely applied cleaning method for milking installations uses three consecutive rinsing cycles. The first rinse uses clean water, then water with added detergent is used for the second rinse and the final rinse uses clean water again. The ...