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Strategy to identify the causes and to solve a sludge granulation problem in methanogenic reactors: application to a full-scale plant treating cheese wastewater

  • Advances in Environmental Biotechnology and Engineering 2016
  • Published:
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Abstract

Granulation of biomass is at the basis of the operation of the most successful anaerobic systems (UASB, EGSB and IC reactors) applied worldwide for wastewater treatment. Despite of decades of studies of the biomass granulation process, it is still not fully understood and controlled. “Degranulation/lack of granulation” is a problem that occurs sometimes in anaerobic systems resulting often in heavy loss of biomass and poor treatment efficiencies or even complete reactor failure. Such a problem occurred in Mexico in two full-scale UASB reactors treating cheese wastewater. A close follow-up of the plant was performed to try to identify the factors responsible for the phenomenon. Basically, the list of possible causes to a granulation problem that were investigated can be classified amongst nutritional, i.e. related to wastewater composition (e.g. deficiency or excess of macronutrients or micronutrients, too high COD proportion due to proteins or volatile fatty acids, high ammonium, sulphate or fat concentrations), operational (excessive loading rate, sub- or over-optimal water upflow velocity) and structural (poor hydraulic design of the plant). Despite of an intensive search, the causes of the granulation problems could not be identified. The present case remains however an example of the strategy that must be followed to identify these causes and could be used as a guide for plant operators or consultants who are confronted with a similar situation independently of the type of wastewater. According to a large literature based on successful experiments at lab scale, an attempt to artificially granulate the industrial reactor biomass through the dosage of a cationic polymer was also tested but equally failed. Instead of promoting granulation, the dosage caused a heavy sludge flotation. This shows that the scaling of such a procedure from lab to real scale cannot be advised right away unless its operability at such a scale can be demonstrated.

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Notes

  1. AlPO4, Al2S3, Ca3(PO4)2, CaHPO4, Co3(PO4)2, CoHPO4, CoS, FeS, Ni3(PO4)2, NiS

  2. [H2Ssoluble] = [Stotal soluble sulphide in reactors]/[1 + 10[pH − pKa′1] + 10[2 × pH − pKa′2 − pKa′1]]. For the calculation of total soluble sulphide and the values of pH, pKa′1 and pKa′2, see Tables 3 and 4.

  3. The Gibbs free energy of their conversion to CH4 and CO2 is of −1.145 kJ/g COD for lactate and higher than −0.9 kJ/g COD for the alcohols, while it is only of 0.55 and 0.56 kJ/g COD for propionic and acetic acids (see Vanderhaegen et al. 1992).

Abbreviations

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

D1:

Digester 1

D2:

Digester 2

DAF:

Dissolved air flotation

E Ag/AgCl :

Redox potential according to Ag/AgCl reference electrode

EGSB:

Expanded granular sludge bed

FOG:

Fats, oil and grease

FOGCOD :

FOG expressed as COD equivalent

FOGSLR :

FOG sludge loading rate

GLSS:

Gas-liquid-solid separator

HRT:

Hydraulic retention time

HT:

Homogenisation (buffer) tank

IC:

Internal circulation

LCFA:

Long-chain fatty acids

OLRs:

Sludge organic loading rate

OLRv :

Volumetric organic loading rate

PW:

Pumping well

SRT:

Solid retention time

SVI:

Sludge volumetric index

TSS:

Total suspended solids

VFA:

Volatile fatty acids

VSS:

Volatile suspended solids

V up :

Water upflow (superficial) velocity

UASB:

Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket

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Acknowledgements

For this study, Maricela Esquivel was financially supported by the cheese factory and Acela Laguna and Olivier Baron by IRD. The authors thank the cheese factory and particularly its employees Paulino Rivas, Gerardo Gonzalez, Omar Reyes and Abelardo Villareal for their interest and kind assistance during the realisation of this project. They also thank Sébastien Prunier and Graciela Famá for their technical help at the early stage of the work, Germán Buitrón and Ilangovan Kuppusamy for the loan of a Hach spectrophotometer and a jar test equipment, respectively, and Mark Spanevello for the help with English language.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aix Marseille Univ, Univ Avignon, CNRS, IRD, IMBE, Marseille, France

    Hervé Macarie

  2. Faculté des Sciences St-Jérôme, Aix Marseille Université, Case 421, Avenue Escadrille Normandie Niemen, 13397, Marseille Cedex 20, France

    Hervé Macarie

  3. Depto Biotecnología, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico City, Mexico

    Maricela Esquivel, Acela Laguna & Oscar Monroy

  4. Lessafre, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Olivier Baron

  5. National Research Council Canada, Royalmount Avenue, 6100, Montréal, QC, H4P 2R2, Canada

    Rachid El Mamouni & Serge R. Guiot

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  1. Hervé Macarie
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  2. Maricela Esquivel
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  3. Acela Laguna
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  4. Olivier Baron
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  5. Rachid El Mamouni
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  6. Serge R. Guiot
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  7. Oscar Monroy
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Correspondence to Hervé Macarie.

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Macarie, H., Esquivel, M., Laguna, A. et al. Strategy to identify the causes and to solve a sludge granulation problem in methanogenic reactors: application to a full-scale plant treating cheese wastewater. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 21318–21331 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9818-3

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