Start-up of an Anaerobic Hybrid (UASB/Filter) Pilot Plant Treating Petrochemical Industrial Wastewater

摘要

Anaerobic digestion is a useful technique for the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater .Recent development of anaerobic processes for waste water treatment must be credited to the success of the UASB reactor concept. The cost of construction, installation and operation of anaerobic reactors are lower than those of convention aerobic units because the reactor does not require equipment for process maintenance and control. The start –up of anaerobic reactors is generally time consuming because of slow growth rates of acetic acid converting methanogens and acclimatization of microorganisms to the waste. The time for start-up of an anaerobic filter is directly proportional to the concentration of microbial population .By seeding ,it is possible to reduce the time required to reach in steady state condition. This paper deals with start-up of the experimental investigation of an anaerobic hybrid reactor (UASB/filter) treating petrochemical industrial wastewater at mesophilic condition as water quality management. The objective of water quality management is to control the discharge of pollutants so that water quality is not degraded to an unacceptable extend below the natural background level. Hence to achieve standard water quality effluent, in this study an experimental setup were design, fabricated with Plexiglas column (15 cm in diameter and 120 cm in height). The upper 20 cm was fixed bed of corrugated plastic sheet. The total volume of the reactor was 18.5L and the volume of liquid was 15.4 L. The reactor was seeded with sludge from a UASB plant treating dairy industrial wastewater. The sludge was acclimatized to petrochemical wastewater in two stage operation. During the operation the influent COD was kept between 1000-4000 mg/L. After 39 weeks, a COD reduction of 70.3% was obtained at OLR of 2.0 kg/m3.