The second generation of our originally proposed sewage treatment system, which consists of a UASB reactor as an anaerobic pre-treatment unit and curtain-type DHS (downflow hanging sponge) reactor as an aerobic post-treatment unit, was installed at a municipal sewage treatment site. A 550-day continuous experiment demonstrated that the whole combined system successfully achieved 94–97% of unfiltered-BOD removal, 81–84% of unfiltered-COD removal, and 63–79% of SS removal, at an overall HRT of 8 h (6 h for UASB and 2 h for DHS units). The combined system performed an excellent organic removal as well as a fairly efficient nitrification, i.e. 52–61% of ammonia-nitrogen removal. Our proposed combined system possesses prominent advantages: requiring neither external aeration input nor excess sludge withdrawal.

Anaerobic wastewater treatment has been focused on its eco-friendly nature in terms of the improved energy conservation and reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. However, the anaerobic process discharges unrecovered methane as dissolved methane. In this study, to prevent the emission of dissolved methane from up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors used to treat sewage and to recover it as useful gas, we employed a two-stage down-flow hanging sponge (DHS) reactor as a post-treatment of the UASB reactor. The closed DHS reactor in the first stage was intended for the recovery of dissolved methane from the UASB reactor effluent; the reactor could successfully recover an average of 76.8% of the influent dissolved methane as useful gas (containing methane over 30%) with hydraulic retention time of 2 h. During the experimental period, it was possible to maintain the recovered methane concentrations greater than 30% by adjusting the air supply rate. The remaining dissolved methane after the first stage was treated by the next step. The second closed DHS reactor was operated for oxidation of the residual methane and polishing of the remaining organic carbons. The reactor had a high performance and the influent dissolved methane was mostly eliminated to approximately 0.01 mgCOD L(-1). The dissolved methane from the UASB reactor was completely eliminated--by more than 99%--by the post-treatment after the two-stage closed DHS system.

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A pilot-scale experiment of a down-flow hanging sponge (DHS) reactor for treatment of low-strength municipal wastewater was conducted over 1 year in Bangkok, Thailand, to establish an appropriate method for treatment under tropical climate conditions. Municipal wastewater with an average BOD of 19 mg/L was fed directly into the DHS reactor. Superior effluent quality (5.1 ± 3.4 mg/L TSS, 21.1 ± 9.0 mg/L COD, 2.8 ± 1.4 mg/L BOD, and 4.1 ± 1.0 mg/L TN) was achieved at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1 h under an average temperature of 30 °C. The DHS reactor reached an actual HRT of 19.0 min, indicating good contact efficiency between wastewater and retained sludge. The DHS reactor retained dense sludge at 15.3-26.4 g VSS/L based on the sponge media volume. The sludge activity in terms of specific oxygen uptake rate was good. Excess sludge was produced as 0.051 g TSS/g COD removed (0.11 g TSS/g BOD removed), and a good SVI of 28 mL/g was observed. The sufficient performance was attributed to dense sludge with high activity, regardless of the low-strength wastewater. Overall, the DHS was advantageous owing to its simple operation, lack of operational problems, and low power consumption.