Anaerobic treatment of winery wastewater in fixed bed reactors

Abstract

The treatment of winery wastewater in three upflow anaerobic fixed-bed reactors (S9, S30 and S40) with low density floating supports of varying size and specific surface area was investigated. A maximum OLR of 42 g/l day with 80 +/- 0.5% removal efficiency was attained in S9, which had supports with the highest specific surface area. It was found that the efficiency of the reactors increased with decrease in size and increase in specific surface area of the support media. Total biomass accumulation in the reactors was also found to vary as a function of specific surface area and size of the support medium. The Stover-Kincannon kinetic model predicted satisfactorily the performance of the reactors. The maximum removal rate constant (U(max)) was 161.3, 99.0 and 77.5 g/l day and the saturation value constant (K(B)) was 162.0, 99.5 and 78.0 g/l day for S9, S30 and S40, respectively. Due to their higher biomass retention potential, the supports used in this study offer great promise as media in anaerobic fixed bed reactors. Anaerobic fixed-bed reactors with these supports can be applied as high-rate systems for the treatment of large volumes of wastewaters typically containing readily biodegradable organics, such as the winery wastewater.

Sustainable Agro-Food Industrial Wastewater Treatment Using High Rate Anaerobic Process

“…Similarly, the pulp and paper industry is one of the most significant industries in Sweden, as well as many other countries around the world, and the products constitute important industrial trade in terms of value of production [2]. Wine production is one of the leading agro-food industries in Mediterranean countries, and it has also attained importance in other parts of the world, such as Australia, Chile, the United States, South Africa and China, with increasing influence on the economy of these countries [3]. The wine industry generates huge volumes of wastewater that are mainly originated from several washing operations, e.g., during crushing and pressing of the grapes, cleaning the fermentation tanks, containers, other equipment and surfaces.…”

“…[1,3,10]. The main parameters of the agro-food industrial wastewater, such as total solids (TS), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and biochemical and chemical oxygen demand (BOD and COD), respectively are given in Table 1.…”

“…In a similar study, Ganesh et al [3] investigated the performance of upflow anaerobic fixed-bed reactors filled with low density supports of varying size and specific surface area for the treatment of winery wastewater. They found that efficiency of reactors increased with decrease in size and increase in specific surface area of the supports.…”

“…However, an aerobic post-treatment is required to make the effluent fit for final disposal, especially in terms of nitrogen [3,14,22]. Table 2 summarizes the performance of anaerobic digesters for the treatment of various agro-food wastewaters in terms of design and applied operational conditions, process efficiency and energy characteristics.…”

“…The upflow fixed bed reactors or upflow anaerobic filter (UAF) is one of the earlier designs, and its characteristics are well defined [3,22,40]. The UAF is a relatively simple technology; and in engineering terms, it is not as complex as fluidized bed reactors, and in biological terms, it does not require the formation of a granular sludge, a prerequisite for the UASB reactor, which is usually very difficult to maintain.…”