Wastewater Treatments for the Food Industry: Physical–Chemical Systems

This chapter provides a general overview of physical–chemical wastewater remediation systems in the food industry. Water reuse systems are becoming more and more interesting and promising technologies, depending on merely quantitative estimations, physical and chemical features of pollutants and the variability of these characteristics, week after week. Different systems are available for the food industry, depending on the final destination or water effluents and peculiar chemical–physical and biological features of the fluids before treatment. Several of these remediation systems can be subdivided into different groups, depending on the desired amount of gross removed matters, or into four categories depending on the peculiar removal operation (physical, chemical, thermal or biological procedures). This chapter is dedicated to the description of physical– chemical wastewater remediation systems only. Biological procedures are not considered here, while physical–chemical techniques are discussed with the possibility of ‘hybrid’ solutions including biological treatments, if applicable.