Effect of the chemical nature of fixed-bed reactor support materials on bioreactor performance and biomass accumulation

Sen, B.; Torrijos, M.; Sousbie, P.; Steyer, J. P.

doi:10.7508/gjesm.2015.03.004

Document Type : ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Authors

¹ INRA, UR0050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, Narbonne, F-11100, France

² Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Haryana, Gurgaon, 122413, India

³ INRA, UR0050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, Narbonne, F-11100, France.

https://doi.org/10.7508/gjesm.2015.03.004

Abstract

This study investigated the effect, on reactor performance and biomass retention inside the bed, of the material used to make the supports of anaerobic fixed-bed reactors. Three inert supports of similar shape but made of three different materials polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, high-density polyethylene were manufactured and used. All three supports had the same specific surface area but different relative densities. Three identical 10 L lab-scale upflow anaerobic fixed-bed reactors were filled (80% of the working volume) each respectively with polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and polyethylene support, and fed with vinasse (44 g total COD/L) for 140 days at 35 °C. The organic loading rates were increased from 0.5 g/L.d to the maximum acceptable by each reactor. Fairly similar maximum organic loading rates were reached for each type of support, with values above 20 g of COD/L.d and more than 80 % soluble chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency. A very large amount of biomass was entrapped and attached in all the supports and represented more than 95% of the total biomass inside the reactors. In terms of performance and biomass accumulation, this study demonstrated quite similar behavior for anaerobic fixed-bed reactors with supports made of different materials, which suggests that the nature of the material used to make the supports has no major influence. The chemical nature of the support material clearly has negligible effect and thus the size, shape, and porosity of the support must be more influential.

Keywords

References

Acharya, B. K.; Mohana, S.; Madamwar, D., (2008). Anaerobic treatment of distillery spent wash-A study on upflow anaerobic fixed film bioreactor. Bioresource Tech., 99: 4621-4626 (6 pages).

APHA (2005). Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 21 ed., Washington, D.C., USA: American Public Health Association, American Water Works Association, Water Environment Federation.

Banu, J. R.; Kaliappan, S.; Beck, D., (2006) High rate anaerobic treatment of Sago wastewater using HUASB with PUF as carrier. Processing, 3(1): 69-77 (9 pages).

Chen, Y.; Cheng, J. J.; Creamer, K. S., (2008) Inhibition of anaerobic digestion process: A review. Bioresource Tech., 99: 4044-4064 (21 pages).

Choi, Y. S.; Shin, E. B.; Chang, H. N.; Chung, H. K., (1989) Start-up and operation of anaerobic biofilters with packing alternatives. Bioprocess Eng., 4: 275-281 (8 pages).

Connaughton, S.; Collins, G.; O’Flaherty, V., (2006) Development of microbial community structure and activity in a high-rate anaerobic bioreactor at 18 °C. Water Res. 40: 1009-1017 (18 pages).

Di Berardino, S.; Bersi, R.; Converti, A.; Rovatti, M., (1997). Starting-up an anaerobic hybrid filter for the fermentation of wastewater from food industry. Bioprocess Eng., 16(65-70) (6 pages).

Fang, C., O-Thong, S., Boe, K. and Angelidaki, I. (2011). Comparison of UASB and EGSB reactors performance, for treatment of raw and deoiled palm oil mill effluent (POME). J. Hazardous Mater., 189(1-2): 229-234 (6 pages).

Frankin, R. J. (2001). Full-scale experiences with anaerobic treatment of industrial wastewater. Water Sci. Tech., 88(8): 1-6 (6 pages).

Ganesh, R.; Rajinikanth, R.; Thanikal, J. V.; Ramanujam, R. A.; Torrijos, M., (2010). Anaerobic treatment of winery wastewater in fixed bed reactors. Bioprocess Biosystems Eng., 33(5): 619-28 (10 pages).

Hickey, R. F.; Wu, W.-M.; Veiga, M. C.; Jones, R., (1991). Start-up, operation, monitoring and control of high-rate anaerobic treatment systems Water Sci. Tech., 24: 207-255 (49 pages).

Lee, S.; Lee, H.; Lee, S.; Chitapornpan, S.; Chiemchaisri, C.; Polprasert, C.; Ahn, K., (2007). Media configuration and recirculation of upflow anaerobic floating filter for piggery wastewater treatment. Korean J. Chem. Eng., 24(6): 980-988 (9 pages).

Liu, R.; Tian, Q.; Chen, J., (2010). The developments of anaerobic baffled reactor for wastewater treatment: A review. African J. Biotech., 9(11): 1535-1542 (8 pages).

Mirsepasi , A.; Honary , H. R.; Mesdaghinia, A. R.; Mahvi , A. H.; Vahid, H.; Karyab, H., (2006). Performance Evaluation of Full Scale UASB Reactor in Treating Stillage Wastewater. Iran J. Environ. Health Sci. Eng., 3(2): 79-84 (6 pages).

Nikolaeva, S.; Sánchez, E.; Borja, R.; Raposo, F.; Colmenarejo, M. F.; Montalvo, S.; Jiménez-Rodríguez, A.M., (2009). Kinetics of anaerobic degradation of screened dairy manure by upflow fixed bed digesters: effect of natural zeolite addition. Journal of environmental science and health. Part A, Toxic/ Hazardous Substances Environ. Eng., 44(2): 146-54 (9 pages).

Parawira, W.; Kudita, I.; Nyandoroh, M. G.; Zvauya, R., (2005). A study of industrial anaerobic treatment of opaque beer brewery wastewater in a tropical climate using a full-scale UASB reactor seeded with activated sludge. Process Biochem., 40: 593-599 (7 pages).

Rajinikanth, R.; Ganesh, R.; Escudie, R.; Mehrotra, I.; Kumar, P.; Thanikal, J. V.; Torrijos, M., (2009). High rate anaerobic filter with floating supports for the treatment of effluents from small-scale agro-food industries. Desalination Water Treat., 4: 183-190 (8 pages).

Roca, E.; Lema, J. M.; Molina, F.; Go, R. L.; Ae, A., (2007). Winery effluent treatment at an anaerobic hybrid USBF pilot plant under normal and abnormal operation. 25-31 (7 pages).

Ruiz, C.; Torrijos, M.; Sousbie, P.; Lebrato-Martinez, J.; Moletta, R.; Delgenes, J. P., (2002). Treatment of winery wastewater by anaerobic sequencing batch reactor. Water Sci. Tech., 45: 219-224 (6 pages)..

Sandhya, S.; Swaminathan, K., (2006). Kinetic analysis of treatment of textile wastewater in hybrid column upflow anaerobic fixed bed reactor. Chem.Eng. J., 122(1-2): 87-92 (6 pages).

Show, K.-Y. ; Tay, J.-H., (1999). Influence of support media on biomass growth and retention in anaerobic filters. Water Res., 33(6): 1471-1481 (11 pages).

Tawfik, A.; El-Kamah, H., (2012). Treatment of fruit-juice industry wastewater in a two-stage anaerobic hybrid (AH) reactor system followed by a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Environ. Tech., 33(4): 429-436 (8 pages).

Tay, J. H.; Show, K. Y.; Jeyaseelan, S., (1996). Effects of media characteristics on performance of upflow anaerobic packed-bed reactors. J. Environ. Eng. 469-476 (8 pages).

Thanikal, J. V.; Torrijos, M.; Habouzit, F.; R., M., (2007). Treatment of distillery vinasse in a high rate anaerobic reactor using low density polyethylene supports. . Water Sci. Tech., 56: 17–24 (8 pages).

Tran, T. T.; Nopharatana, A.; Chaiprasert, P., (2003). Performance of Anaerobic Hybrid and Mixing Reactors in Treating Domestic Wastewater. Energy, 4: 19-39 (9 pages).

Venkata Mohan, S.; Chandrasekhara Rao, N.; Krishna Prasad, K.; Murali Krishna, P.; Sreenivas Rao, R.; Sharma, R.. (2005). Anaerobic treatment of complex chemical wastewater in a sequencing batch biofilm reactor: process optimization and evaluation of factor interactions using the Taguchi dynamic DOE methodology. Biotech. Bioeng., 90 : 732-745 (14 pages).

Weiland, P., (1987). Development of anaerobic filters for treatment of high strength agro-industrial wastewaters. Bioprocess Eng., 2: 39-47 (9 pages).

Weiland, P.; Wulfert, K., (1986). Anaerobic treatment of stillage using different pilot scale fixed bed reactors. Biotech. Bioeng., 27(800–809), (10 pages). .

Yang, Y.; Tsukahara, K.; Sawayama, S.; Maekawa, T., (2004). Anaerobic digestion by a fixed and fluidized hybrid reactor packed with carbon felt. Mater. Sci. Eng.: C, 24(6-8): 893-899 (7 pages).

Young, J. C.; Dahab, M. F., (1983). Effect of media design on the performance of fixed-bed anaerobic reactors. Water Sci. Tech., 15: 369-383 (15 pages).

Yu, H. Q.; Zhao, Q. B.; Tang, Y., (2006). Anaerobic treatment of winery wastewater using laboratory-scale multi- and single-fed filters at ambient temperatures. Process Biochem, 41: 2477-2481 (5 pages).

Letters to Editor

GJESM Journal welcomes letters to the editor for the post-publication discussions and corrections which allows debate post publication on its site, through the Letters to Editor. Letters pertaining to manuscript published in GJESM should be sent to the editorial office of GJESM within three months of either online publication or before printed publication, except for critiques of original research. Following points are to be considering before sending the letters (comments) to the editor.

[1] Letters that include statements of statistics, facts, research, or theories should include appropriate references, although more than three are discouraged.
[2] Letters that are personal attacks on an author rather than thoughtful criticism of the author’s ideas will not be considered for publication.
[3] Letters can be no more than 300 words in length.
[4] Letter writers should include a statement at the beginning of the letter stating that it is being submitted either for publication or not.
[5] Anonymous letters will not be considered.
[6] Letter writers must include their city and state of residence or work.
[7] Letters will be edited for clarity and length.