Treatment of Cake Production Wastewater in Upflow Anaerobic Packed Bed Reactors

Abstract

The results presented in this paper are from studies on a laboratory-scale upflow anaerobic packed bed (UAPB) reactors treating
cake production wastewater at increasing organic loading rates of 1.36-6.48 g COD l-1day-1. The hydraulic retention times (HRT)
of the reactors ranged from 120-26 hours for reactors during the 115 days of the experiment. At 5.88 g COD l-1 per day-1 organic
load and 29 hours retention time, a 98-99 % total COD removal was achieved in two reactors. The gas production increased with a
rising organic loading rate of up to 9.28 l CH4l -1 day-1 in the first-stage reactor and 0.73 l CH4 l -1 day-1in the second-stage reactor.
The study demonstrated the suitability of UAPB reactors for treatment of cake production wastewater.