CE 521 Environmental Biotechnology

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Term Paper Abstracts (Fall 2000):

Comparisons of Anaerobic Sequencing Batch reactor (ASBR), Temperature Phased Anaerobic Digester (TPAD), and Static Granular Bed Reactor (SGBR)

Duangmanee Thanapong

Abstract

The Anaerobic Sequencing Batch reactor (ASBR), Temperature Phased Anaerobic Digester (TPAD), and Static Granular Bed Reactor (SGBR) were compared in this paper. All of the three systems were developed and modified at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa U.S.A. The emphasized comparison aspects were the developments, the processes, and the applications of these three systems. The ASBR was found to be a very effective system resulting from its configuration that allowed the reactor to have alternating low and high Food:Microorganism ratio (F:M ratio) in each operating cycle. The granulation process occurred in the system could lead the reactor to a high rated substrate removal and to a stable reactor. The TPAD system made use of thermophilic operating temperature to destroy pathogens and volatile solids to meet U.S. EPA requirements, thus, to produce class A biosolids. The SGBR system used the active granular biomass that was placed in the bed of reactor to treat low to medium strength wastewater. By down flow system, the SGBR could generate the low concentration of suspended solid (SS) and BOD₅ to meet NPDES permit requirements (<30 mg/L of both parameters). Interesting findings of the experimented SGBR were that a high faction of methane production (80% on average) could be achieved and that the lower the HRTs, the higher the methane productions, which was contrast to most of the anaerobic wastewater treatment reactors.

Keywords

anaerobic, ASBR, TPAD, SGBR, granulation, coliforms, methane, development of anaerobic system, anaerobic wastewater treatment system in Iowa State University