High-rate anaerobic treatment of wastewater at low temperatures
- Wageningen Agricultural Univ. (Netherlands)
- Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation). Inst. of Microbiology
Anaerobic treatment of a volatile fatty acid (VFA) mixture was investigated under psychrophilic (3 to 8 C) conditions in two laboratory-scale expanded granular sludge bed reactor stages in series. The reactor system was seeded with mesophilic methanogenic granular sludge and fed with a mixture of VFAs. Good removal of fatty acids was achieved in the two-stage system. Relative high levels of propionate were present in the effluent of the first stage, but propionate was efficiently removed in the second stage, where a low hydrogen partial pressure and a low acetate concentration were advantageous for propionate oxidation. The specific VFA-degrading activities of the sludge in each of the modules doubled during system operation for 150 days, indicating a good enrichment of methanogens and proton-reducing acetogenic bacteria at such low temperatures. The specific degradation rates of butyrate, propionate, and the VFA mixture amounted to 0.139, 0.110, and 0.214 g of chemical oxygen demand g of volatile suspended solids{sup {minus}1} day{sup {minus}1}, respectively. The biomass which was obtained after 1.5 years still had a temperature optimum of between 30 and 40 C.
- OSTI ID:
- 343583
- Journal Information:
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 65, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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