Full text
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| Author(s): |
Roberto Antonio Bezerra Junior
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Carlos. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2004-07-12 |
| Examining board members: |
José Alberto Domingues Rodrigues;
Deovaldo de Moraes Júnior;
Marcelo Zaiat
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| Advisor: | José Alberto Domingues Rodrigues |
| Abstract | |
An assessment was performed on the stability and efficiency of an anaerobic reactor containing biomass immobilized on polyurethane foam for the treatment of synthetic wastewater with organic loading of approximately 500 mgCOD/L. The reactor had a total volume of 6 L. Batch operation took place at a temperature of 30 +/- 1ºC and an agitation rate of 500 rpm. During operation only part of the treated wastewater was renewed per cycle, i.e., reactor discharge was not complete, but partial. The main operation characteristic investigated was the ratio between influent wastewater volume, which was fed at each cycle, and the volume of medium contained in the reactor, which had not been discharged in the previous cycle, maintaining the same volumetric organic load. This way, it was possible to verify operation flexibility of the system regarding treated wastewater volume in each cycle as well as cycle time duration for the same volumetric organic loading. Results indicated that the reactor was able to operate at different ratios between feed and reaction medium volume without significant loss in performance, allowing, hence, greater operation flexibility. For conditions at which renewed volume was greater than or equal to 50% of the reactor medium (cycles from 4 to 8 hours), filtered and non-filtered organic matter removal efficiencies were about 84 and 79%, respectively, whereas at conditions of higher initial influent dilution (cycles from 1 to 2 hours) these efficiencies were slightly lower, about 80 and 74%, respectively. The high formation rate of viscous polymer-like material probably of microbiological origin, at the conditions of higher initial influent dilution hindered maintenance of constant reactor medium volume. (AU) | |