BACKGROUND: Process modeling is a useful tool for description and prediction of the performance of anaerobic digestion systems under varying operation conditions. The objective of this study was to implement a model to simulate the dynamic behavior of a large-scale anaerobic sewage sludge digestion system. Artificial neural network (ANN) models using algorithms best suited to environmental problems (the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and the 'gradient descent with adaptive learning rate' back propagation algorithms) were used to model the anaerobic sludge digester of the Ankara Central Wastewater Treatment Plant (ACWTP) using dynamic data.

The IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) was used to simulate the full-scale anaerobic sludge digester of Ankara Central Wastewater Treatment Plant. The digester is a completely mixed, once through continuous flow type which is being fed with a primary and secondary sludge mixture. The variability and unpredicted nature of the primary sludge composition was expected to challenge the model. A one-year dynamic data set from the digester was used for model calibration and validation in the study. The standard ADM1 model was corrected in the study with regard to nitrogen and carbon mass balances. A good correlation between the measured and simulated data was obtained for biogas yield, total volatile fatty acids and pH after heuristically calibrating stoichiometric and kinetic parameters of the ADM1 model. The simulation is sensitive to influent composition.

The effect of a reactive azo dye (the hydrolyzed form of Reactive Orange 107, HRO107) on the digestion of municipal waste sludge (WS) was studied. The study also focused on the effect of acclimation of the anaerobic mixed culture on dye treatment. Anaerobic batch assays were carried out in serum bottles under mesophilic conditions. Unacclimated and acclimated anaerobic mixed cultures were used for the study. Both unacclimated and acclimated anaerobic cultures completely reduced HRO107 during WS digestion. Inhibitory HRO107 concentration was found to be 800 mg/L for unacclimated mixed culture. Acclimation increased the inhibitory concentration level from 800 to 3200 mg/L. Sulfanilic acid and four other unidentified dye reduction end products were detected at the end of the assays. The results of this study indicated that anaerobic municipal WS digesters have the potential to be a cost efficient and effective pre treatment method.

TurkeyResearch Article Effect of Anaerobic Azo Dye Reduction on Continuous Sludge DigestionEffect of continuous feeding of a reactive azo dye, reactive orange 107, and its hydrolyzed form (HRO107), on a conventional anaerobic digester was investigated in this study together with observation of change in microbial community. Laboratory-scale digesters were fed with waste activated sludge and azo dye for 575 days continuously. The influent concentrations of reactive azo dye were between 200 and 3200 mg/L. The digester performance was not adversely affected by azo dye and its reduction metabolites throughout the study. A HRO107 concentration with 3200 mg/L was not inhibitory for the digester performance after prolonged exposure. The dye removal efficiencies were between 95 and 99% most of the time of operation implying that dye removal efficiency was not affected by variations in organic loading rate or influent dye concentration. Sulfate-reducing bacteria may increase in the digester but did not cause any toxicity due to hydrogen sulfide formation after prolonged feeding.

The kinetics of azo dye reduction based on combined effect of biochemical reduction by anaerobic mixed culture and chemical reduction with hydrogen sulfide was investigated. Hydrogen sulfide was produced by sulphate reducing bacteria existing in the anaerobic mixed culture. The effect of initial anaerobic biomass, initial substrate, and initial dye (Reactive Orange 107) concentrations on reduction kinetics were studied with batch assays. The municipal waste sludge was used as electron donating substrate for biochemical reduction. The microbial biomass and substrate concentration did not affect the dye reduction rates significantly. The reduction kinetics was suggested as combination of biochemical reduction by Monod kinetics and chemical reduction by first order decay kinetics. The proposed kinetic model was validated by batch experiments for initial dye concentrations of 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 mg/L. The model was verified by continuous reactor study at initial dye concentration of 200 mg/L.