Eficiencia de un tratamiento biológico aplicado a un efluente de industria palmícola en la provincia de Orellana mediante un ensayo a escala reducida enmarcado en economía circular.

Abstract

Residues generated in palm oil extraction constitute a set of pollutants that produce negative impacts on the environment. The uncontrolled release of effluents into water resources is a threat to aquatic life. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine a biological treatment efficiency applied to the effluent from Orellana industry palm oil through a small-scale test framed in a circular economy to verify compliance with the Environmental Quality Standard. The methodology implemented had a quantitative and experimental approach because a prototype of a purification system was made, which consisted of four phases organized in cooling, anaerobic digestion, gravitational sedimentation, and biofiltration. Likewise, in situ and ex-situ analysis was carried out for seven parameters established in Table 9 conforming to the limits for discharge into a freshwater body, Annex 1, Ministerial Agreement 97-A, of the Reform of the Unified Text of Secondary Environmental Legislation. Data analysis was performed with Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics tools. This method showed the removal efficiency of Total Suspended Solids with 99.38; Total Solids 89.81; Biochemical Oxygen Demand 89.32; Chemical Oxygen Demand 81.61; Oils and Fats 81.44 and Temperature 59.06 respectively. While hydrogen potential increased its value from 4.2 to 4.4. In addition, a paired samples T Student test confirmed a significant difference between the conditions before and after the experimental procedure. In this context, it is concluded that the treatment is efficient in reducing the pollutant load in this type of industry. However, five parameters do not comply with the maximum permissible discharge limit, with the exception of temperature and oil.