Effect of organic load and fill time on stability and efficiency of an ASBR containing granular biomass treating cheese whey

Author(s)

Thiago Ruiz Zimmer

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD)
• Defense date: 2006-02-10

Examining board members

José Alberto Domingues Rodrigues; Carlos Osamu Hokka; Marcelo Zaiat

• Advisor: José Alberto Domingues Rodrigues

Abstract

The effect of volumetric organic load (VOL) and fill time on the stability and efficiency of an ASBR was assessed. The ASBR containing granular biomass was operated in batch and fed-batch mode and treated diluted cheese whey. Assays were performed at 30 'degrees' C with total medium volume of 5.0 liters and 8-h cycle lengths. In a first stage the reactor was operated batch-wise with fill time ('T IND.feed') of 10 min and agitation frequency of 150 rpm. At each cycle 2.0 liters of medium were fed at influent concentration ('C IND.infl') of 1000, 2000, 4000 and 6000 mg/L, in terms of COD. Alkalinity supplementation was gradually optimized from 100% to 25% of 'NA'H'CO IND.3'/COD ratio. At these conditions the reactor attained stability at applied VOL of 4.8 g/L.d, alkalinity supplementation of 25% and organic matter removal efficiency of 96.0% and 98.4% in terms of soluble and total COD, respectively. In a second stage due to operational problems devices were developed to assure biomass retention and hence make fed-batch operation feasible. The tested devices included hybrid ASBR, agitation system with two impellers: helix and inclined blade impeller (a) and helix and inclined turbine impeller (b). The system chosen was the helix and inclined turbine. With this configuration agitation frequency and biomass volume were reduced to 75 rpm and 1.0 L, respectively. This way, it was possible to assess feed strategies ('T IND.feed') of 360, 180 and 10 minutes at constant applied VOL of 2.4 g/L.d, for 'C IND.infl' of 4000 mg/L at 'V IND.feed' of 1.0 L and for 'C IND.infl' of 8000 mg/L at 'V IND.feed' of 0.5 L. At 'C IND.infl' of 4000 mg/L increase in 'T IND.feed' resulted in decrease in efficiency in terms of soluble COD, which amounted to 97.8, 96.7 and 94.5% for 'T IND.feed' of 10, 180 and 360 minutes, respectively. At 'C IND.infl' of 8000 mg/L the increase in 'T IND.feed' resulted in lower values for COD effluent (AU)