Industrial pollution control; Volume I, Agro-Industries

338 introduction to the principles of livestock waste and waste water management for undergraduate chemists, agriculturalists and environmentalists. The reader is steadily eased into each of the fourteen chapters which are written with considerable clarity and well illustrated with diagrams, figures and examples. The highspots of the book for the reviewer were chapters five, seven and twelve, dealing with "Biological Treatment Fundamentals", "Oxygen Transfer" and "Nitrogen Control" respectively, and one wondered if some of the introductory chit-chat elsewhere could have been omitted, leaving space to be filled by further chemistry and biochemistry. For example, assuming the book was intended for the informed reader, was it necessary to have a section describing bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa and rotifers -topics which would have received adequate coverage in any basic course of biology? At the same time, the chapter dealing with anaerobic digestion could have been expanded to cover the biochemistry of methane formation; likewise, the reviewer would like to have seen rather more about the nutrient requirements of various agricultural crops and the extent to which land disposal of animal wastes can meet this demand. The author is well known by his earlier book "Agricultural Waste Managem e n t " (Academic Press, 1974), and his published papers. "Pollution Control for Agriculture" is intended as an up-dating and elaboration of certain aspects of the earlier book and provides the reader with a comprehensive survey of livestock waste treatment and use. It is well referenced for further reading and contains very few printing errors; it is to be recommended as one of the standard texts to anyone dealing with the subject of livestock wastes. J.L. GARRAWAY (Wye, Great Britain)

POLLUTION FROM AGRO-INDUSTRIES

Industrial Pollution Control, Volume I, Agro-Industries. E. Joe Middlebrook, John Wiley and Sons, London, 1979. i--445 pp., £15.25, ISBN 0-47104779-1. This book is the first volume of three dealing with pollution and its control by industries. It deals with pollution from mainly the agro-industries or food processing sector. Pollution in the agro-industries is defined as an adverse effect on environmental quality caused by operations at agricultural production and processing establishments. The types and sources of pollution discussed are (a) water pollution as caused by wastes discharged into water bodies and streams, (b) soiled wastes, especially those from food processing, (c) air pollution, with odors being the main problem, (d) noise pollution, which is not a significant problem, and (e) thermal pollution, a minor but expensive problem in the agro-industries. It is stated that agro-

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industries are adaptable to developing countries and that there are no environmental reasons to limit the processing and refinement of foods to certain areas of the world. The book is made up of two chapters. The second chapter is 349 pages and deals with segments of agro-industries. The major segments of agroindustries in relation to pollution problems are: dairy products, animal wastes, grain melling, sugar refining, oils and fats, fish and seafood, red meat, poultry, canning, specialty food, malt liquor, malt, winde and brandy, distilled liquors, canned and bottled soft drinks, flavoring and extracts, and egg breaking. A fairly long section of the book is devoted to the pollution problems created in each of the above, the processing methods used and major pollution control alternatives available. The capital costs for establishing a wastewater treatment plant for dairy products are discussed. For animal waste, the steps in production are presented in mass flow diagrams for fed beef, dairy cows, swine, broilers, turkeys, ducks, and the horse industry (race tracks). Similarly, under food processing, the inputs for and steps in manufacture are diagramed separately for wet milling corn, dry milling corn, normal wheat flour milling, bulgar wheat flour milling, parboiled rice milling, animal feed manufacturing, hot cereal manufacturing, ready-to-eat cereal manufacturing, and wheat starch and gluten manufacturing. The steps and materials involved in processing are explained. In-plant control and treatment processes for pollution abatement are summarized. For sugar, summary is given of the steps and waste materials for both field harvesting operations and sugar factories. Flow diagrams are included for a bone char refinery, a carbon refinery, a liquid sugar refinery and a crystalline refinery. Similar presentations are made for the other segments of agro-industries. A fairly large portion o f the presentations is composed of flow diagrams of the, steps involved in processing. The end materials are detailed as they represent both end products and waste products with pollution potential. Major pollution control parameters and treatment processes are discussed for each segment. Emphasis is generally on water quality environmental considerations. ttowever, nonwater quality environmental considerations also are summarized for each segment. The book gives a detailed description of the processing steps involved in each major segment of the agro-industries. It seems to be a treatise with as much or more emphasis on detailing the processing steps of the food industries as on the environmental influences of each. It does, however, trace out the waste materials resulting from processing of each food c o m m o d i t y group and summarizes control methods. The book gives a very excellent description of food processing steps and systems for readers who proviously have given only cursory attention to this subject matter area. With this detailed presentation in chapter 2, a greater part of the first chapter might better have been devoted to a discussion of the social impacts of pollution from the agroindustries. E A R L O. IIEADY

(Ames, IA, U.S.A.)