Fatemeh Khademi - Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas Branch, Bandar Abbas, Iran
Kamyar Yaghmaeian - Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Mohammad Taheri - Kerman Water and Sewage Company, Kerman, Iran
Mohammad Ali Hayatabadi - Environmental Health Engineering Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

Background: In this study, the effect of wastewater produced by pistachio processing in processingterminals on wastewater treatment plants with activated sludge process was investigated.Methods: The pilot of activated sludge was constructed at the laboratory scale similar to wastewatertreatment plant in Kerman and it was investigated in different ratios of the wastewater of pistachioprocessing with urban wastewater and return sludge ratios of 50% and 75%. The best reactor efficiencyin treating pistachio processing wastewater was obtained at a ratio of 5% with urban wastewater andreturn sludge of 50% plus 5 and 10% with urban wastewater and return sludge of 75%.Results: The removal efficiency in the reactor in the aforementioned ratios was obtained to be 96.9%,98%, and 96.2% for COD, 95.7%, 97.2%, and 93.3% for BOD5, and 7.1%, 99%, and 96.97% for phenoliccompounds, respectively. The removal efficiency of BOD5 and COD reduced with the increase inthe ratios of pistachio processing wastewater especially with the presence of phenolic compounds.The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that in the aforementioned ratios of pistachioprocessing wastewater with urban wastewater, the mean COD and BOD5 in the output wastewater weresignificantly lower than the standards of Iranian environmental organization and guidelines of WorldHealth Organization (WHO).Conclusion: Activated sludge process is able to remove organic compounds of pistachio processingwastewater at a ratio of 5% and return sludge of 50% along with ratios of 5 and 10% and return sludge of75% with urban wastewater with a high efficiency.

Activated sludge process, Wastewater, Pistachio, Environment