Performance and Modeling of a Pilot-Scale Up-Flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) Treating Pharmaceutical Wastewater Containing Berberine

Abstract

A pilot-scale test was conducted with an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) treating pharmaceutical wastewater containing berberine. The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of UASB in the condition of a high chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading rate from 4.64 to 8.68 kg/m3d and a wide berberine concentration from 254 to 536 mg/L, in order to provide a reference for treating the similar pharmaceutical wastewater containing berberine. The results demonstrated that the UASB average percentage reduction in COD and berberine 68.14% and 57.39%, respectively. Granular sludge was formed during this process. In addition, a model, built on the back propagation neural network (BPNN) theory and linear regression techniques was developed for the simulation of the UASB system performance in the biodegradation of pharmaceutical wastewater containing berberine. The average errors of COD and berberine were -0.55% and 0.24%, respectively. The results indicated that this model built on the BPNN theory was well-fitted to the detected data, and was able to simulate and predict the removal of COD and berberine by UASB reactor.