Large Scale Anaerobic-Aerobic Treatment of Complex Industrial Waste Water Using Biofilm Reactors

Abstract

Warm concentrated industrial wastewaters are preferably treated in an anaerobic reactor for reasons of energy generation and low surplus sludge production. Problems to be solved in the practical application concern a low growth rate of the micro-organisms, their low settling rate process instability, and the need for after-treatment of the noxious anaerobic effluent which often contains NH4+ and HS−. The use of biomass immobilized on small suspended carriers (< 0.5 mm) has proven to be a suitable mean to overcome most of these problems. Results are presented on–pilot and full-scale pretreatment of industrial wastewater in an anaerobic 2-stage fluidized bed reactor for CH.-production.–laboratory and pilot scale post-treatment of the anaerobic effluent, which contains NH4+. and HS2− in an aerobic air-lift suspension reactor for the production of NO3− and SO4−.

Abrasion of suspended biofilm pellets in airlift reactors: Importance of shape, structure, and particle concentrations

“…Most of the modern, high-capacity wastewater treatment systems, such as the upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB), airlift reactor, and fluidized-bed and internal circulation reactors (Peereboom and Vereijken, 1994), make use of suspended bioparticles. Small suspended carriers are used as substrata for biofilm formation in airlift and fluidized-bed reactors (Heijnen et al, 1991;Wagner and Hempel, 1988) and to provide an intermediate stage in aggregate formation, for example in anaerobic gas-lift (Beeftink and Staugaard, 1986) and UASB reactors (Lettinga, 1995). They have also been used to control excessive biofilm formation in such systems (Wagner and Hempel, 1988).…”

Barriers to sustainable water-quality management

“…In developed countries, much progress has been made in monitoring and controlling emissions from these sources. However, much remains to be done in many developing countries from both technological and economic points of view (Nair, 1990;Heijnen et al, 1991;Li and Chu, 1991;Wong, 1997). Somlyody (1995) addressed the issues of water-quality management through point source control.…”

“…As to technologies for point source control, Heijnen et al (1991) proposed a large-scale biofilm reactor system for treating industrial wastewater through a combined anaerobicaerobic process. Cooke (1994) studied the mechanism of nutrient transformation in a natural wetland that is used for receiving sewage effluent.…”

Anaerobic/Aerobic biological activated carbon (BAC) Treatment of a high strength phenolic wastewater

“…Bode [ 4 ] found that the effluent qualities achieved for pectin, sugar, and animal pulp industrial wastewaters subjected to solely aerobic treatment were better than those from sequential anaerobiclaerobic treatment. Heijnen et al [5] studied a full scale three stage sequenced anaerobidaerobic process for the treatment of an industrial waste containing COD, kjeldahl nitrogen, and sulfate. All three units employed immobilized biomass to reduce process size, The first two units were for anaerobic pretreatment and were followed by an aerobic unit primarily for ammonium and sulfide oxidation.…”