Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactors for Bio-methane production from limed tannery fleshings: Lab and pilot scale reactors

Abstract

The Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket reactor is a viable high-rate anaerobic digestion design for the treatment of different wastewater with low to high solubility. This can also be used for the treatment of solid wastes with less HRT. In this study, the performance evaluation of a lab-scale UASB reactor was carried out for different hydraulic retention times of 24, 21, 18, 15 and 12 h for obtaining the best HRT for tannery fleshings. The gas production varied between 3.7 – 4.5 L with a methane content of 64.31 – 67.72%. It was observed that the maximum gas production was at 18 h HRT and this optimized condition was applied to the pilot-scale UASB reactor. The performance evaluation of the pilot-scale UASB reactor was carried out with an HRT of 18 h. The gas production of 450 ± 50 L, the maximum specific gas production of 0.274 m3/kg of VS destroyed and 0.239 m3/kg of TS destroyed was obtained and the maximum biogas productivity of 0.495 L was observed at 18 h HRT with the highest methane content of 67.86%. The payback period of the pilot scale reactor is 3.2 years.