Stability of USAB reactor under shock loads

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is a key area in wastewater treatment. Especially in treating high concentration wastewater such as dairy wastewater. It is crucial because dairy waste water can change in COD and BOD values drastically. This work compares the overall performance and biogas production of intermittent UASB reactor treating dairy wastewater and subjected to shock loads. Stable reactor showed a slight increase in methane gas production under applied fat shocks. Moreover, the intermittent systems did not present significant variations on the effluent COD removal efficiency consequent of the fat shock. The shock lasted for two intermittent cycles. Results from the anaerobic reactor which was intermittently operated confirm the effect on reactor performance under fat shocks in detail.