Abstract

Evaluation Of Inverse Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Reactor For Treating High Strength Organic Wastewater

Author(s): R.Sowmeyan, G.Swaminathan

Inverse fluidization particles having specific gravity less than one are carried out in the reactor. The carrier particles chosen for this study was perlite having specific surface area of 7010m2/m3 and lowenergy requirements for fluidization. Before starting up the reactor physical properties of the carrier material were determined. 1mm diameter perlite particle is found to have a specific density of 295kg/m3. It was used for the treatment of distillery waste and performance studies were carried out for 85 days. Once the down flow anaerobic fluidized bed system reached the steady state, the organic load was increased step wise by reducing Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) from2days to 0.19 day, while maintaining the constant feed of COD concentration.Most particles are covered with a thin biofilm of uniform thickness. This system achieved 87% COD removal at an Organic loading rate (OLR) of 35 kg of COD/m3/d.