Identification of Microbial Community in an Anaerobic Reactor Treating Brewery Wastewater

The study of microbial ecology and their function in anaerobic digestion processes are essential to control the biological processes. This is to know the symbiotic relationship between the microorganisms that are involved in the conversion of complex organic matter in the industrial wastewater to simple molecules. In this study, diversity and quantity of bacterial community in the granular sludge taken from the different compartments of a full-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating brewery wastewater was investigated using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). The phylogenetic analysis showed three major eubacteria phyla that belong to Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Chloroflexi in the full-scale UASB reactor, with different groups populating different compartment. The result of qPCR assay showed high amount of eubacteria with increase in concentration along the reactor’s compartment. This study extends our understanding on the diverse, topological distribution and shifts in concentration of microbial communities in the different compartments of a full-scale UASB reactor treating brewery wastewater. The colonization and the trophic interactions among these microbial populations in reducing and transforming complex organic matter within the UASB reactors were established.

Biogas Control: Methane Production Monitoring Using Arduino

Extracting energy from biomass is an important alternative to produce different types of energy (heat, electricity, or both) assuring low pollution and better efficiency. It is a new yet reliable approach to reduce green gas emission by extracting methane from industry effluents and use it to power machinery. We focused in our project on using paper and mill effluents, treated in a UASB reactor. The methane produced is used in the factory’s power supply. The aim of this work is to develop an electronic system using Arduino platform connected to a gas sensor, to measure and display the curve of daily methane production on processing. The sensor will send the gas values in ppm to the Arduino board so that the later sends the RS232 hardware protocol. The code developed with processing will transform the values into a curve and display it on the computer screen.

Hydrogen Production from Alcohol Wastewater by Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactors under Mesophilic Temperature

In this work, biohydrogen production via dark fermentation from alcohol wastewater using upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors (UASB) with a working volume of 4 L was investigated to find the optimum conditions for a maximum hydrogen yield. The system was operated at different COD loading rates (23, 31, 46 and 62 kg/m3d) at mesophilic temperature (37 ºC) and pH 5.5. The seed sludge was pretreated before being fed to the UASB system by boiling at 95 ºC for 15 min. When the system was operated under the optimum COD loading rate of 46 kg/m3d, it provided the hydrogen content of 27%, hydrogen yield of 125.1 ml H2/g COD removed and 95.1 ml H2/g COD applied, hydrogen production rate of 18 l/d, specific hydrogen production rate of 1080 ml H2/g MLVSS d and 1430 ml H2/ L d, and COD removal of 24%.

Anaerobic Treatment of Petroleum Refinery Wastewater

Anaerobic treatment has many advantages over other biological method particularly when used to treat complex wastewater such as petroleum refinery wastewater. In this study two Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactors were operated in parallel to treat six volumetric organic loads (0.58, 1.21, 0.89, 2.34, 1.47 and 4.14 kg COD/m3·d) to evaluate the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency. The reactors were continuously adapting to the changing of operation condition with increase in the removal efficiency or slight decrease until the last load which was more than two times the load, at which the reactor stressed and the removal efficiency decreased to 75% with effluent concentration of 1746 mg COD/L. Other parameters were also monitored such as pH, alkalinity, volatile fatty acid and gas production rate. The UASB reactor was suitable to treat petroleum refinery wastewater and the highest COD removal rate was 83% at 1215 kg/m3·d with COD concentration about 356 mg/L in the effluent.

Anaerobic Treatment of Produced Water

An experimental study of anaerobic treatment was performed by hybrid upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (HUASB) reactor to treat produced water (PW) of an onshore crude oil terminal (COD: 1597 mg/L, NH3-N: 14.7 mg/L, phenol: 13.8 mg/L, BOD5: 862 mg/L, sodium: 6240 mg/L and chloride 9530 mg/L). The produced water with high salinity and other toxic substances will inhibit the methanogens performance if there is no adaptation on biomass before anaerobic digestion. COD removal from produced water was investigated at five different dilutions of produced water and tap water (TW) without any nutrient addition and pre-treatment. The dilution ratios were 1PW:4TW, 2PW:3TW, 3PW:2TW, 4PW:1TW and 5PW:0TW. The reactor was evaluated at mesophilic operating condition (35 ± 2 °C) at 5 days of HRT for 250 days continuous feed. The average COD removals for 1PW:4TW, 2PW:3TW, 3PW:2TW, 4PW:1TW and 5PW:0TW were found to be approximately 76.1%, 73.8%, 70.3%, 46.3% and 61.82% respectively, with final average effluent COD of 123.7 mg/L, 240 mg/L, 294 mg/L, 589 mg/L and 738 mg/L, respectively.

Treatment of Petroleum Refinery Wastewater by using UASB Reactors

Petroleum refineries discharged large amount of wastewater -during the refining process- that contains hazardous constituents that is hard to degrade. Anaerobic treatment process is well known as an efficient method to degrade high strength wastewaters. Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanker (UASB) is a common process used for various wastewater treatments. Two UASB reactors were set up and operated in parallel to evaluate the treatment efficiency of petroleum refinery wastewater. In this study four organic volumetric loading rates were applied (i.e. 0.58, 0.89, 1.21 and 2.34 kg/m3·d), two loads to each reactor. Each load was applied for a period of 60 days for the reactor to acclimatize and reach steady state, and then the second load applied. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removals were satisfactory with the removal efficiencies at the loadings applied were 78, 82, 83 and 81 % respectively.