The highest concentrations of sulfate present in wastewaters are found in waste
streams from edible oil industry refineries. Sulfuric acid is used to recover higher
volatile fatty acids (VFA) from a very alkaline process water. These “acid waters”
contain up to 50 g/l sulfate and insufficient organic matter to achieve complete
sulfate reduction (Hoeks et al., 1984; Rinzema et al., 1986; Saw et al., 1986)