Treatment of slaughterhouse wastewater in a UASB reactor and an anaerobic filter

A study was performed to assess the feasibility of anaerobic treatment of slaughterhouse wastewaters in a UASB (Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) reactor and in an AF (Anaerobic Filter). Among the different streams generated, the slaughter line showed the highest organic content with an average COD of 8000 mg/l, of which 70% was proteins. The suspended solids content represented between 15 and 30% of the COD. Both reactors had a working volume of 21. They were operated at 37°C. The UASB reactor was run at OLR (Organic Loading Rates) of 1–6.5 kg COD/m³/day. The COD removal was 90% for OLR up to 5 kg COD/m³/day and 60% for an OLR of 6.5 kg COD/m³/day. For similar organic loading rates, the AF showed lower removal efficiencies and lower percentages of methanization. At higher OLR sludge, flotation occurred and consequently the active biomass was washed out from the filter. The results indicated that anaerobic treatment systems are applicable to slaughterhouse wastewaters and that the UASB reactor shows a better performance, giving higher COD removal efficiencies than the AF.     

Determination of kinetic constants for a two-stage anaerobic upflow packed-bed reactor for dairy wastewater

A two-stage upflow packed-bed (reactors in series) system was used for the treatment of dairy wastewater. Nylon pads were used as supporting media for the biomass. This investigation aimed at the determination of various kinetic constants for substrate, biomass and biogas based on various models. The maximum loadings that could be applied to reactor I and reactor II were 14·29 and 5·0 kg of chemical oxygen demand (COD) per m³ per day, respectively. The maximum COD removal efficiencies at various loading rates were in the ranges of 93·8–98·5% and 72·5–84% for the two reactor systems, respectively. The combined biogas yield was between 0·196 and 0·386 m³ gas/kg COD_a.     

Performance of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) treating synthetic wastewater containing p-nitrophenol

In this study, the effect of increasing p-nitrophenol (PNP) concentrations on the performance of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) (chemical oxygen demand (COD), removals, volatile fatty acid (VFA), p-aminophenol (PAP) and methane gas productions) was investigated through 240 days. The PNP concentrations were raised to 700 from 10 mg/L corresponding to PNP loading rates of 0.97 and 67.9 g/m³ day. The PNP and COD removal efficiencies were 99 and 90% at PNP loading rates as high as 33.9 g/m³ day, respectively, through the acclimation of anaerobic granular sludge. After this loading rate, the removal efficiencies decreased to 79%. The COD removal efficiencies were high in compartment 1 (E = 78–93%) while a small amount of COD removal was achieved in compartments 2 and 3. The PNP removal efficiencies were approximately 90% in all PNP loading rates except for loading rate of 0.97 g/m³ day. The maximum PNP removal efficiency was measured as 99% at a loading rate of 8.32 g/m³ day. The optimum PNP loading rate for maximum COD, PNP removals and methane yield was 8.32 g/m³ day. The total, methane gas productions and methane percentages were approximately 2160–2400 mL/day and 950–1250 mL/day and 44–52% for the PNP loading rates varying between 4.36 and 33.9 g/m³ day, respectively. For PNP loading rates varying between 33.9 and 67.9 g/m³ day, the total, methane gas productions and methane percentages were approximately 2160 and 960 mL/day and 44%, respectively. The highest total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) concentrations were found in the first compartment with fluctuated values varied between 50 and 200 mg/L indicating the acidogenesis. p-Aminophenol was found as the main intermediate through anaerobic degradation of PNP which later was broken down to phenol and ammonia.     

Performance evaluation of a 1 m modified, fixed-dome Deenbandhu biogas plant under hilly conditions

The performance of a 1 m³ daily gas-production-capacity, modified, Deenbandhu biogas plant was evaluated under hilly conditions. The modified plant had a digester volume of 2·65 m³ with 55 days hydraulic retention time (HRT) as against a volume of 2·45 m³ with 50·96 days HRT of the Action for Food Production (AFPRO) design. All the constructional items used in the modified plant were in accordance with the recommendations of AFPRO except the number of bricks, i.e. 625 in the modified design as against 800 in the AFPRO design. The rates of biogas production in October 1993 and January 1994 were 0·0357 and 0·0282 m³/kg feed (wet weight of dung); respectively. Thus the modified plant had a gas production efficiency of 70·5–89·4% of its rated capacity. All other functional parameters were within the optimum limits recommended for successful operation of any anaerobic digester.     

Impact of liquid-to-gas hydrogen mass transfer on substrate conversion efficiency of an upflow anaerobic sludge bed and filter reactor

Efficient anaerobic degradation may be completed only under low levels of dissolved hydrogen in the liquid surrounding the microorganisms. This restraint can be intensified by the limitations of liquid-to-gas H₂ mass transfer, which results in H₂ accumulation in the bulk liquid of the reactor. Dissolved hydrogen proved to be an interesting parameter for reactor monitoring by showing a good correlation with short-chain volatile fatty acid concentration, namely propionate, which was not the case for the H₂ partial pressure. Biogas recycle was performed in a upflow anaerobic sludge bed and filter reactor. The effects of varying the ratio of recycled-to-produced gas from 2:1 (9 l/l reactor per day) to 8:1 (85 l/l reactor per day) were studied. By increasing the liquid—gas interface with biogas recycling, the dissolved hydrogen concentration could be lowered from 1.1 to 0.4 μ . Accordingly, the H₂ sursaturation factor was also reduced, leading to an important improvement of the H₂ mass transfer rate, which reached 20.86 h⁻¹ (±9.79) at a 8:1 gas recycling ratio, compared to 0.72 h⁻¹ (±0.24) for the control experiment. Gas recycling also lowered the propionate concentration from 655 to 288 mg l⁻¹ and improved the soluble chemical oxygen demand removal by 10–15%. The main problem encountered was the shorter solid retention time, which could lead to undesirable biomass washout at high gas recycling ratio. This could be circumvented by improving the reactor design to reduce the turbulence within the biomass bed.     

Anaerobic treatment of highly concentrated aniline wastewater using packed-bed biofilm reactor

The performance of packed-bed biofilm reactor (PBBR) with self-floating bio-carriers was investigated to treat highly concentrated organic nitrogenous aniline wastewater with a COD value as high as 24,000 mg/L. With 45 vol% of carrier charge inside the reactor, the aniline wastewater can be effectively treated with 94% of COD removal efficiency at a low organic loading rate (OLR) of 0.9 kg COD/(m³ d). The removal efficiency decreased gradually down to 75% when OLR increased to 12.27 kg COD/(m³ d) that corresponded to 1 day of HRT. Separate tests with biofilm alone showed that the conversion contribution of the biofilm was about half of the overall COD conversion by the biofilm plus sludge system at the same OLRs of 3–4 kg COD/(m³ d), and that the biofilm had higher activity than suspended sludge. Ammonium released from decomposed aniline was increased gradually from 500 to 1700 mg/L with the OLR increase from 0.9 to 12.27 kg COD/(m³ d), which resulted in inhibitory effect to the microorganism due to the toxicity of free ammonia. Batch anaerobic toxicity tests showed that the biofilm was less sensitive to toxic compounds than suspended sludge and could tolerate higher concentration of free ammonia.     

Anaerobic treatment of winery wastewater using laboratory-scale multi- and single-fed filters at ambient temperatures

A lab-scale investigation was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a multi-fed upflow anaerobic filter process for the methane production from a rice winery effluent at ambient temperatures. The experiment was carried in two identical 3.0-l upflow filters, a single-fed reactor and a multi-fed reactor. The results showed that the multi-fed reactor, operated at the ambient temperatures of 19–27 °C and influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 8.34–25.76 g/l, could remove over 82% of COD even at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 37.68 g-COD/l d and a short hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 8 h. This reactor produced biogas with a methane yield of 0.30–0.35 l-CH₄/g-COD_removed. The multi-fed upflow anaerobic filter was proved to be more efficient than the single-fed reactor in terms of COD removal efficiency and stability against hydraulic loading shocks. A linear-regression model with influent COD concentration and HRT terms adequately described the multi-fed upflow anaerobic filter system for the treatment of rice winery wastewater at ambient temperatures.     

Biotreatment of swine manure by intensive lagooning during winter

The intent of the proposed system was to develop an in situ biotreatment system for swine manure that should involved minimum handling by the farmer. A demonstration plant has been installed in the Paris region. The intensive lagooning system consists of algal ponds, daphnid ponds and a polishing fish pond working in series with a total area of 2100 m² and a total volume of 3600 m³.

The performance of the system was evaluated under winter conditions with raw decanted swine manure by measuring N-NH₄⁺ and P-PO₄³⁻ removal, pH, temperature, water oxygen, algal biomass and daphnid productions.

Results showed that low temperatures (<5°C) did not allow any significant biomass production (0·41–0·68 g dry mass/m² d). Ammonia-nitrogen, mostly stripped (98% lost by stripping), and phosphate removals were small. However, as soon as the temperature increased in spring (March), ammonia-nitrogen removal was improved with a large contribution (71%) due to stripping and the algal productivity increased to ≈ 3·5 g dry mass/m² d; CO₂ appeared to be a limiting factor.

Ammonia-nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite and orthophosphate showed marked variations that could be correlated with manure overdoses.     

Comparison of long-term performances and final microbial compositions of anaerobic reactors treating landfill leachate

Laboratory scale anaerobic upflow filter, sludge blanket and hybrid bed reactors were operated for 860 days in the treatment of high ammonia landfill leachate. Organic loading was gradually increased from 1.3 to 23.5 kg COD/m3 day in the start-up period and then fluctuated according to the COD concentration of raw leachate. To prevent free ammonia inhibition, influent pH was reduced to 4.5 after Day 181 and consequently COD removal efficiencies above 80% were achieved in all reactors. However, the anaerobic filter and hybrid bed reactor were generally found slightly more efficient and stable than the UASB reactor. In addition to conventional anaerobic reactor control parameters, the complementary techniques of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), cloning and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) were used to identify and compare the microbial profiles in the reactors at Day 830. Molecular analyses revealed that acetoclastic Methanosaeta species were prevalent in all reactors and configuration did not have an impact on microbial diversity in the long-term.     

The effect of pretreatment on anaerobic activity of olive mill wastewater using batch and continuous systems

This study was focused on several physico-chemical and biological treatment methods that may affect the reduction of the organic load in olive mill wastewater (OMW). In this study, removal of 95% of the phenolic compounds present in OMW was achieved using sand filtration and subsequent treatment with powdered activated carbon in a batch system. This pretreatment for OMW was found to enhance the anaerobic activity of the sludge in the batch system significantly. The efficiency of organic load removal achieved by the anaerobic treatment of untreated OMW in batch reactors with tap water dilution factors below 1:10, reached approximately 65% chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. However, in the up-flow sludge anaerobic blanket (UASB) reactor, COD removal efficiency of 80–85% was reached at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 5 days with an influent COD concentration of 40 g l⁻¹ and organic loading rate (OLR)=8 g⁻¹ COD l⁻¹ per day.     

Anaerobic treatability of waste water from pulp and paper industries

A black liquor evaporator condensate from a Kraft mill and a waste water from production of corrugating medium were anaerobically treated on a laboratory scale. The composition of the waste waters was determined before and after treatment in fixed bed reactors.

Toxicity studies by the Microtox-method showed that both waste waters were highly toxic and a slight decrease in toxicity was achieved by anaerobic treatment. Despite the toxicity efficient anaerobic treatment was obtained.

Major components of the condensate were methanol, ethanol, acetone, guaiacol, hydrogen sulfide and dimethyl disulfide. Anaerobic treatment reduced the concentration of the major components considerably with one exception. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide was unchanged.

Organic overloading of the fixed bed reactor or a temperature drop resulted in an accumulation of acetone, although methanol and ethanol were degraded.

Major components of the waste water from the production of corrugating medium were: Klason-lignin, acid-soluble lignin, carbohydrates, extractives and ash. When the fixed bed reactor was operated at a volumetric load of 1.6 kg COD/m³.d the following reductions were obtained:

Klason - lignin (solids fraction 84%; soluble and colloidal fraction 76%), acid-soluble lignin (solids fraction 56%; soluble and colloidal fraction 7%), carbohydrates (100%), extractives (71%), total-S (80%), COD (73%) and BOD₇ (78%).

Kinetic studies showed that condensate was more easily degraded anaerobically than corrugating medium waste water.     

Challenge of psychrophilic anaerobic wastewater treatment

Psychrophilic anaerobic treatment is an attractive option for wastewaters that are discharged at moderate to low temperature. The expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor has been shown to be a feasible system for anaerobic treatment of mainly soluble and pre-acidified wastewater at temperatures of 5--10 degrees C. An organic loading rate (OLR) of 10--12 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD) per cubic meter reactor per day can be achieved at 10--12 degrees C with a removal efficiency of 90%. Further improvement might be obtained by a two-module system in series. Stabile methanogenesis was observed at temperatures as low as 4--5 degrees C. The specific activity of the mesophilic granular sludge was improved under psychrophilic conditions, which indicates that there was growth and enrichment of methanogens and acetogens in the anaerobic system. Anaerobic sewage treatment is a real challenge in moderate climates because sewage belongs to the 'complex' wastewater category and contains a high fraction of particulate COD. A two-step system consisting of either an anaerobic up-flow sludge bed (UASB) reactor combined with an EGSB reactor or an anaerobic filter (AF) combined with an anaerobic hybrid reactor (AH) is successful for anaerobic treatment of sewage at 13 degrees C with a total COD removal efficiency of 50% and 70%, respectively.     

Start-up of an anaerobic hybrid (UASB/filter) reactor treating wastewater from a coffee processing plant

The ability of an anaerobic hybrid reactor, treating coffee wastewater, to achieve a quick start-up was tested at pilot scale. The unacclimatized seed sludge used showed a low specific methanogenic activity of 26.47 g CH4 as chemical oxygen demand (COD)/kg volatile suspended solids (VSS) x day. This strongly limited the reactor performance. After a few days of operation, a COD removal of 77.2% was obtained at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 1.89 kg COD/m3 x day and a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 22 h. However, suddenly increasing OLR above 2.4 kg COD/m3 x day resulted in a deterioration in treatment efficiency. The reactor recovered from shock loads after shutdowns of 1 week. The hybrid design of the anaerobic reactor prevented the biomass from washing-out but gas clogging in the packing material was also observed. Wide variations in wastewater strength and flow rates prevented stable reactor operation in the short period of the study.     

Animal cell culture in stirred bioreactors: observations on scale-up

The scale-up of stirred tank bioreactors from 0·02 m³ to a 0·3 m³ commercial plant is discussed for hybridoma suspension cultures. Schemes for dissolved oxygen control with sparged air in serum containing media are described, as well as mechanical breakage of foam in small and large bioreactors. Porous metal spargers (180–200 × 10⁻⁶ m) were found to produce foams which were hard to control. Aeration with larger (≥ 0·001 m) multihole spargers is recommended.

Combined cell damage due to foam formation and control, and possible damage at mechanical seals or submerged bearings, were found to have no measurable effect on cell growth relative to roller bottle production. Hybridomas are shown to withstand significant impeller tip speed ( > 1 m s⁻¹) and fluid turbulence as evidenced by impeller Reynolds numbers in excess of 10⁵. The size of the energy-dissipating terminal eddies was calculated to be greater than ten-fold that of the hybridoma cells. The specific fluid turnover rate was employed as the scale-up criterion.     

Mercury Removal from Air by a Fiber-Based Bioreactor

A partial removal of metallic mercury from air by fiber-based trickle-bed bioreactors was observed. Up to 50 to 65% of the inlet mercury concentrations of 35 to 70 µg/m³ were removed by immobilized live Pseudomonas bacteria for up to 275 hours at a residence time of 1 min. Ninety to 125% of the adsorbed mercury was recovered by a direct assay after dismantling the bioreactors, thus confirming that the observed mercury removal was due to its adsorption by biomass rather than wet scrubbing followed by evaporation. However, mercury removal at a lower inlet concentration (23 µg/m³) was negligible, with a poor material balance. The adsorbed mercury at higher inlet concentrations was not removed from the biomass by a 2-week washing after conclusion of the mercury adsorption experiment, which indicates a strong mercury binding by bacteria. The volatile organic compound removal efficiency was not affected by the presence of up to 70 µg/m³ of metallic mercury in the air.     

Determination of bacterial cell number and cell volume by means of flow cytometry, transmission electron microscopy, and epifluorescence microscopy

Comparative measurements of bacterial total counts and volumes of flow cytometry (FCM), transmission electron (TEM), and epifluorescence microscopy (EFM), were undertaken during a four week mesocosm experiment. Total counts of bacteria measured by TEM, EFM, and FCM were in the range of 1 · 10⁶−6 cells ml⁻¹, 1 · 10⁶−3 · 10¹⁶ cells ml⁻¹, and 5 · 10⁵ cells ml⁻¹ respectively. The mean volume of the bacterial community, measured by means of EFM and TEM, increased from 0.12–0.15 μm³ at the start of the experiment to 0.39–0.53 μm³ at the end. Generally, there was good agreement between the two methods and regression analyses gave r = 0.87 (p < < 0.01) for cell volume and r = 0.97 (p < < 0.01) for cell number. DAPI stained bacteria with volumes less than 0.2 μm³ were not detected by flow cytometry and these were generally an order of magnitude lower than counts made by TEM and EFM. For samples where the mean bacterial cell volume was longer than 0.3 μm³, all three methods were in agreement both with respect to counts and volume estimates.     

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation discovered in a denitrifying fluidized bed reactor

Abstract Until now, oxidation of ammonium has only been known to proceed under aerobic conditions. Recently, we observed that NH₄⁺ was disappearing from a denitrifying fluidized bed reactor treating effluent from a methanogenic reactor. Both nitrate and ammonium consumption increased with concomitant gas production. A maximum ammonium removal rate of 0.4 kg N · m⁻³ · d⁻¹ (1.2 mM/h) was observed. The evidence for this anaerobic ammonium oxidation was based on nitrogen and redox balances in continuous-flow experiments. It was shown that for the oxidation of 5 mol ammonium, 3 mol nitrate were required, resulting in the formation of 4 mol dinitrogen gas. Subsequent batch experiments confirmed that the NH₄⁺ conversion was nitrate dependent. It was concluded that anaerobic ammonium oxidation is a new process in which ammonium is oxidized with nitrate serving as the electron acceptor under anaerobic conditions, producing dinitrogen gas. This biological process has been given the name ‘Anammox” (anaerobic ammonium oxidation), and has been patented.     

铝合金轮毂生产废水处理系统的设计和运行

某汽车零部件有限公司年产汽车铝合金轮毂200万只,每天产生酸性废水80m³、碱性废水524m³、含锌含铜废水181m³、含铬废水48m³和含镍废水40m³,生产废水总产生量为873m³·d^-1。废水总镍、总锌、总铬、总铜、pH、氟化物和COD的变化范围分别是5.34~18.72mg·L^-1、50.11~97.63mg·L^-1、2.66~16.21mg·L^-1、1.50~11.36mg·L^-1、5.2~8.4、5.0~17.4mg·L^-1、80.9~161.9mg·L^-1。铝合金轮毂生产废水处理系统设计水量为1052m³·d^-1,每个处理周期的运行时间为20h,系统运行稳定,连续30d出水均能达到广东省地方标准《水污染物排放限值》(DB44/26-2001)第二时段二级标准。     

Effect of influent COD/N ratio on biological nitrogen removal (BNR) from high-strength ammonium industrial wastewater

The effect of influent COD/N ratio on biological nitrogen removal (BNR) from high-strength ammonium industrial wastewater was investigated. Experiments were conducted in a modified Ludzack–Ettinger pilot-plant configuration for 365 days. Total nitrification of an influent concentration of 1200 mg NH₄⁺–N l⁻¹ was obtained in this period. Influent COD/N ratios between 0.71 and 3.4 g COD g N⁻¹ were tested by varying the nitrogen loading rate (NLR) supplied to the pilot plant. An exponential decrease of nitrification rate was observed when the influent COD/N ratio increased.

The experimental COD/N ratio for denitrification was 7.1±0.8 g COD g N⁻¹ while the stoichiometric ratio was 4.2 g COD g N⁻¹. This difference is attributable to the oxidation of organic matter in the anoxic reactor with the oxygen of the internal recycle. The influence of influent COD/N ratio on the treatment of high-strength ammonium industrial wastewater can be quantified with these results. The influence of COD/N ratio should be one of the main parameters in the design of biological nitrogen removal processes in industrial wastewater treatment.     

Biomass retention and performance of anaerobic fixed-film reactors treating acetic acid wastewater

An acetic-acid-based synthetic wastewater of different organic concentrations was successfully treated at 35 degrees C in anaerobic downflow fixed-film reactors operated at high organic loading rates and short hydraulic retention times (HRTs). Substrate removal and methane production rates close to theoretical values of complete volumetric chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and maximum methane conversion were obtained. A high concentration of biofilm biomass was retained in the reactor. Steady-state biofilm concentration increased with increased organic loading rate and decreased HRTs, reaching a maximum of 8.3 kg VFS/m(3) at a loading rate of 17 kg COD/m(3) day. Biofilm substrate utilization rates of up to 1.6 kg COD/kg VFS day were achieved. Soluble COD utilization rates at various COD concentrations can be described by half-order reaction kinetics.