ISSN:
0006-3592
Keywords:
Chemistry
;
Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Process Engineering, Biotechnology, Nutrition Technology
Notes:
Investigations on the thermophilic anaerobic treatment of high-strength wastewaters (14-65 kg COD/m3) are presented. Vinasse, the wastewater of alcohol distilleries, was used as an example of such wastewaters. Semicontinuously fed digestion experiments at high retention times revealed that the effluent quality of digestion at 55°C is comparable with that at 30°C at similar loading rates. The amount of methane formed per kilogram of vinasse drops almost linearly with increasing vinasse concentrations. This can be attributed to increasing concentrations of inhibitory compounds, resulting in increasing volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations in the effluent. The treatment of vinasse was also investigated using upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors. Thermophilic granular sludge, cultivated on sucrose, was used as seed material. The sludge required a 4-month adaptation period, during which the size of the sludge granules decreased significantly. However, the settling characteristics remained satisfactory. After adaptation, high loading and methane generation rates could be accommodated at satisfactory treatment efficiencies, namely, 86.4 kg COD/m3 day and 26 m3 CH4(STP)/m3 day, respectively. As in the semicontinuously fed digesters, the effluent VFA concentrations were virtually independent of the loading rates applied, indicating that the toxicity of the vinasse is more important than the loading rate in determining the efficiency of the conversion of vinasse to methane.
Additional Material:
6 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bit.260270915
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