Kinetic evaluation of a partially packed upflow anaerobic fixed film reactor treating low-strength synthetic rubber wastewater

I Nor Faekah,S Fatihah,Zawawi Samba Mohamed

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03594

I Nor Faekah, S Fatihah + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03594

Copy DOI

Journal: Heliyon	Publication Date: Mar 1, 2020
Citations: 15	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: National University of Malaysia

Abstract

A bench-scale model of a partially packed upflow anaerobic fixed film (UAF) reactor was set up and operated at five different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of (17, 14, 10, 8, and 5) days. The reactor was fed with synthetic rubber wastewater consisting of a chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 6355–6735 mg/L. The results were analyzed using the Monod model, the Modified Stover-Kincannon models, and the Grau Second-Order Model. The Grau Second-Order model was found to best fit the experimental data. The biokinetic constant values, namely the growth yield coefficient (Y) and the endogenous coefficient (Kd) were 0.027 g VSS/g COD and 0.1705 d−1, respectively. The half-saturation constant (Ks) and maximum substrate utilization rate (K) returned values of 84.1 mg/L and 0.371 d−1, respectively, whereas the maximum specific growth rate of the microorganism (μmax) was 0.011 d−1. The constants, Umax and KB, of the Stover-Kincannon model produced values of 6.57 g/L/d and 6.31 g/L/d, respectively. Meanwhile, the average second-order substrate removal rate, ks(2), was 105 d−1. These models gave high correlation coefficients with the value of R2 = 80–99% and these indicated that these models can be used in designing UAF reactor consequently predicting the behaviour of the reactor.

Highlights

Anaerobic digestion was first introduced as a method for treating industrial and agricultural waste for decades
The reactor was operated at five hydraulic retention times (HRTs) for about 350 days of operation
The feasibility results of upflow anaerobic filter (UAF) in treating synthetic rubber wastewater are presented with the organic loading rate varied from 0.5–1.3 g chemical oxygen demand (COD)/L/day to assess the performance of the UAF

Summary

Introduction

Anaerobic digestion was first introduced as a method for treating industrial and agricultural waste for decades. The anaerobic digester must be designed to perform effectively so that it will not encounter any problems such as process instability or low methane yield. A high-rate anaerobic reactor such as an upflow anaerobic filter (UAF) is one of the earlier designs with well-defined characteristics and operational parameters (Saravanan and Sreekri, 2006). The continuous operation of packed up flow anaerobic filters may cause clogging to occur (Escudie et al, 2005). Low-density floating media were introduced as a novel solution to overcome this problem. This solution includes employing a kinetic model to model the design, operation, and optimization of a full-scale plant (Rajagopal et al, 2013)

Methods

Results

Conclusion