New Developments in Packing House
Waste Treatment
GEORGE   J.   SCHROEPFER
Professor of Sanitary Engineering
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The increasing emphasis which is being placed on pollution abatement at the federal, state, and local levels has resulted in an even
greater interest on the part of industry to search for new and more
economical methods of solving the water pollution problems confronting
it. A variety of methods of treatment of the wastes from the packing
house industry have been employed, depending on the requirements of
the receiving waters and of control agencies. Where high degrees of
treatment have been required, treatment has generally been of the aerobic
biological type, principally by the trickling filter process. This paper
describes recent developments in a new method of treating such wastes
involving anaerobic decomposition instead of the conventional aerobic
processes.
For the past three years pilot plant investigation on the anaerobic
treatment of packing plant wastes has been under way at the Geo. A.
Hormel & Co. plant at Austin, Minnesota, under the direction of
W. J. Fullen, Chemist. These studies, begun on barrel scale, were
enlarged in 1950 to the present pilot plant treating an average of approximately 10,000 gallons per day.
The anaerobic process as a method of industrial waste treatment has
been employed for some time, particularly on relatively strong wastes;
i.e., those containing 10,000 p.p.m. or more of volatile solids. The application of the process to packing plant wastes containing 1,000 to 2,000
p.p.m. was developed by Mr. Fullen. Since the original pilot plant was
tested at Austin, a number of investigators have displayed an interest
in the process, with the result that pilot plants treating packing plant
wastes are now in operation at Auckland, New Zealand, and at the
Wilson & Co. plant in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
In March, 1952, the Committee on Meat Packing Plant Waste
Disposal of the American Meat Institute, under the Chairmanship of
Reprinted from Proceedings of the Fifth Research Conference, Sponsored by the
Council on Research, American Meat Institute at the University of Chicago,
March 26 and 27, 1953, and reviewed at the Conference by A. J. Steffen.
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