Red meat processing facilities can generate large volumes of wastewater rich in organic contaminants and nutrients, and can therefore be strong candidates for treatment processes aimed at recovery of both energy and nutrient resources. Traditional lagoon-based abattoir wastewater treatment processes have a number of limitations relative to newer alternatives. These limitations include land availability (they require a relatively large amount of land), biogas capture, odour control, the ability to capture nutrients and de-sludging operations. This has led to an emerging and strong case for reactor-based technologies.

Anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) are a style of in-vessel anaerobic digester that use membranes to retain almost all suspended solids within the process. This style of technology is an attractive option to replace lagoons due to its excellent effluent quality, high tolerance to load variations, and ability to produce a solids free effluent for the purposes of reuse. This project focused on the development and optimisation of AnMBR technology for the red meat processing industry.