High rate anaerobic thermophilic technologies for distillery wastewater treatment

In this paper, performance of two high rate technologies, upflow anaerobic fixed-film reactor and fluidized bed laboratory-scale, treating distillery wastewater (wine vinasses ) at anaerobic thermophilic conditions have been compared. The results obtained show that the stationary packed bed, with a corrugated plastic support, operated under stable conditions at organic loading rates (OLR₀) around 20 kgCOD/m³/d, gives maximal total CODr of 76% at OLR0 of 6.29 kgCOD/m³/d; the fluidized bed reactor, operated on open pore sintered-glass media, gives total CODr of 96% at OLR₀ of 5.88 kgCOD/m³/d. The anaerobic fluidized bed technology is more effective than the upflow anaerobic fixed-film technology due, fundamentally, to this technology favouring the transport of microbial cells from the bulk to the surface and enhancing the contact between the microorganism-substrate phases. In this sense, the stationary packed bed technology is adequate for the treatment of easily biodegradable wastewater, or for the cases where elevated percentages of COD_r removal are not required, while the fluidized bed technology is especially suitable for treatment of hazardous wastes with recalcitrant compositions.