A full-scale two-stage anaerobic treatment plant has been treating the wastewaters from a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production facility in South Korea for over 4 years. A study was conducted to evaluate the performance characteristics of this system over a 17-month period of operation. The system has provided stable operation with COD removals consistently averaging over 90%. The removal of specific phthalic acid isomers and related chemicals has been essentially 100% except for terephthalic acid which has averaged about 90% and paratoluic acid which had only about 30% removal. About 80% of the removal occurred in the first stage of the two-stage hybrid process. A companion single-stage anaerobic contact process removed only 80 to 85% of the COD and only 35 to 67% of the phthalic acids.

Kubota Corporation has constructed five full-scale anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) systems in Japan for treatment of stillage from shochu alcohol production. These systems were commissioned from 2006 to 2008. The AnMBR process has been demonstrated to have numerous process advantages over more conventional technologies, such as superior effluent quality, and ability to handle high concentrations of COD, TSS, and FOG, while attaining high organic loading rates (10 to 15 kgCOD/m 3 ·d).AnMBR installations typically operate at 55 °C, which provides additional benefits of higher bacterial kinetic rates and less sludge production. The flat sheet Kubota membranes ensure no biomass is lost to the effluent. COD, BOD, TSS, and FOG removals are typically over 98 percent in the AnMBR process. Despite the very high strength of alcohol stillages, the pairing of the AnMBR with an aerobic MBR (designed for biological nutrient removal), provides a twostage process that can produce an effluent with less than 10 mg/l TSS and BOD, and very low total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations.