Design and construction of a homogenizer for oil based wastewater.

Abstract

Demand for food products and petroleum has been steadily increasing which has led to an. need for increased productivity in such industries, thus increase in the number of dairies, slaughterhouses. meat processing plants and oil. refineries in. many countries of the world. These generate large volumes of post-production and processing effluent. In most of the slaughterhouses, the consumption of Water per slaughtered animal varies according to the animal and the industry Specific process employed, ranging from I .0 to 8.3 mg - Most of this is discarded as wastewater, with 0.4-3.1 m3 of water per slaughtered animal being reported (Caixeta et al., 2002), Milk industries also generate a relatively high volume of post-production processing effluent (about 77-1-000/0 of the total production). Therefore, the objective of the study was to design, construct, test a homogenizing system for the oil based wastewater generated by such plants, which will result into a more effective means and cheaper way of-handling this type of water during the treatment process. The design of the various machine parts was carried out by analyzing forces acting on them. Force analysis, led to selection of proper materials to withstand the forces to avoid failure. Mild Steels of various grades were the main materials recommended to be used because they are Strong, cost effective and durable, Engineering drawings of the various components -were. drawn before the various components were constructed and then machine parts fabricated. A folly functional prototype resulted after a-Il the above operations. Testing. of the prototype was carried out and the figures revealed that-the machine was 35% efficient.