Simultaneous sulfide and nitrate removal in anaerobic reactor under shock loading

Abstract

The performance of anaerobic reactor for simultaneous sulfide and nitrate removal under substrate shock loading was studied. The response to the shock loading could be divided into three stages i.e. disturbance, inertial and recovery periods. The effect of the shock loading was directly proportional to the intensity of the shock loads. The reactor performance was stable at a relatively lower intensity (1.5 times shock load), while it was considerably affected by higher intensity (higher than 2.0 times shock load). Nevertheless, the reactor performance recovered from disturbances at all the tested shock loads. The effluent sulfide-sulfur concentration was found as sensitive parameter, which increased up to 18 times of that at steady state; it could be used as an indicator of the reactor’s performance.