Effect of reactor configuration on performance during anaerobic treatment of low strength wastewater.

The efficiency of the up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor is quite low for the treatment of low strength wastewaters (LSWs) due to less biogas production leading to poor mixing. LSW may be treated efficiently by providing adequate mixing in the UASB reactor when gas production is low, and sufficient mixing can be achieved by modifying reactor geometry. Hence, modifying UASB reactor geometry for enhanced mixing and evaluating its performance for the treatment of LSWs would be a worthwhile effort. In the present study, UASB reactor configuration was modified by providing a vertical baffle along the height to promote mixing of reactor contents, and is termed as modified UASB (MUASB). The performance of an on-site pilot-scale MUASB reactor was evaluated for 375 days under ambient condition for the treatment of municipal sewage as LSW and compared with that of the conventional UASB and hybrid UASB (HUASB) reactors. The MUASB reactor showed better performance in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency as compared with UASB and HUASB reactors during this study. At 4 h hydraulic retention time, the total COD removal efficiency of UASB and HUASB reactors was 53.7% and 61%, respectively, which were much lower than the total COD removal efficiency of the MUASB reactor (72.7%). The better performance observed in the MUASB reactor is possibly due to improved mixing. Depth-wise analysis of reactor liquid showed that better mixing in the MUASB reactor enhances the contact of wastewater with biomass, which contributes to the improved treatment efficiency. It seems that MUASB holds promise for LSW treatment.