Anaerobic treatment of sugar-mill wastewater in downflow fixed-bed reactors

• Published in: Bioresource technology Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 179 - 181
• Main Authors: SANCHEZ HERNANDEZ, E. P, CORDOBA, T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1994; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: anaerobic treatment; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; fixed-bed; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Sugar-mill wastewater; Use and upgrading of agricultural and food by-products. Biotechnology; Sugar-mill wastewater; anaerobic treatment; fixed-bed; Particle size; Organic matter; Applied microbiology; Fixed bed reactor; Biogas; Sugar industry; Retention time; Sugar cane(by product); Bioreactor; Biotransformation; Sugar refinery by product; Anaerobic fermentation; Porosity; Biological treatment; Waste water purification
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/0960-8524(94)90207-0

Preliminary experiments to evaluate the behaviour of anaerobic fixed-bed reactors treating sugar-mill wastewater were carried out. Four hydraulic retention times (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 days) at three levels of strength (raw wastewater, diluted 1 : 1 and diluted 1 : 2) were tested. Three glass columns of 1 m height and 6 litres total volume, packed with gravel of 3 cm average particle size, and bed porosity of 0.53 were employed. It was found that organic matter removal increased with the hydraulic retention time and decreased with the influent concentration and such reactors might be used for treatment of sugar-mill wastewaters.