Author(s)

MARTHA N. CHOLLOM, SUDESH RATHILAL, FEROZ M. SWALAHA, BABATUNDE F. BAKARE, EMMANUEL KWEINOR TETTEH

Abstract

The upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) process is a low-cost and low-skill requirement technology for reducing organic pollution loads especially for industries producing effluents in developing economies. A laboratory-scale UASB reactor was used for the treatment of slaughterhouse wastewater with the aim of studying its performance efficiency. The UASB reactor was seeded with digested sludge from a local water treatment plant treating domestic wastewater. Parameters such as pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), volatile suspended solids (VSS) and volume of biogas generated during the digestion process were evaluated. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) was maintained at 12 hr while the organic loading rates were varied from 0.2–1.4 kg COD/(m³.d^-1). The reactor was operated under mesophilic conditions. At the early stage of the start-up of the reactor, (COD) and (BOD) removal were in the range of 30–62%. The UASB reactor performed better at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 0.8 kg COD/(m³.d^-1 with a COD removal of 86% as compared to the OLRs used in this experiment.

Keywords

anaerobic digestion, slaughterhouse wastewater, start-up, chemical oxygen demand, organic loading rate, biogas, up-flow anaerobic reactor, hydraulic retention time