Lipase and Phospholipase in the Hydrolysis of Lipids in Wastewater from Swine Slaughterhouse and Subsequent Biological Treatment Study

Wastewaters from slaughterhouses are characterized by a high concentration of oils and greases that can cause problems in conventional treatments. The degradation of difficult pollutants in more easily degradable products can be mediated by enzymes. Enzymatic hydrolysis facilitates the biodegradation because it makes the organic material is made available as compounds of lower molecular weight, the lipids being made available in the form of free fatty acids. The application of enzymes as processing aids in wastewater treatment has some advantages, such as the specificity that allows control of the products, which leads to increased income generation for the non-toxic byproducts and moderate conditions of operation. The objective of this work was optimizing the conditions for lipids enzymatic hydrolysis present in swine slaughterhouse wastewaters using lipolytic enzymes and subsequent biological treatment study. Temperature, pH and enzyme concentration were the variables tested. The enzymes showed good activity and could therefore be used for the hydrolysis process proposed here. The optimized conditions to maximize the release of fatty acids were: temperature of 36 °C, pH 8.5 and enzyme concentration of 1.1%, yielding fatty acids in the order of 31.50 µmol/mL for lipase and 31.13 µmol/mL for phospholipase. All variables influenced the release of fatty acids. The maximum yield of biogas was 89.65 mL in the reactor added the sludge, raw wastewater and phospholipase in the conditions optimized the hydrolysis step, obtaining a chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction of 90.01% in relation to the value of the COD of the raw wastewater.