ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Behaviour of Anaerobic Baffled Reactor Treating Nonacidified Wastewater

L. Mrafková, M. Hutňan, and M. Drtil

Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Chemical Technology, Slovak University of Technology, SK-812 37 Bratislava

E-mail: hutnan@chelin.chtf.stuba.sk

Received: 19 May 2000

Abstract: Nonacidified wastewater has been treated in an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR). The performance of ABR was compared with an upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor. In this work, two types of wastewater were used. The first synthetic wastewater contained starch, peptone, macro- and micronutrients. Hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) was the major component of the second wastewater. Investigation of the function of the reactors consisted in a gradual increase of the organic loading and observing response of the reactors. Using the substrate which contained starch and peptone, organic loading of 12—15 kg m⁻³ d⁻¹ was reached. The efficiencies of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal with starch wastewater were comparable for ABR and UASB reactor, they were about 80—90 %. A faster biomass granulation was observed in ABR than in UASB reactor. Methanogenesis was the limiting step in anaerobic degradation of the starch substrate. It was assumed that at high organic loading by using nonacidified wastewater, hydrolysis and acidogenesis would be faster in ABR than in UASB reactor. Therefore, HEC was used as a substrate, because this substrate is hydrolyzed slowly. The efficiency of COD removal was about 40 % in the case of HEC.

Full paper in Portable Document Format: 546ba448.pdf

Chemical Papers 54 (6b) 448–455 (2000)