Deep bed filtration of anaerobic cattle manure effluents with natural zeolite

Abstract

This study was carried out in a pilot plant for the treatment of anaerobic cattle manure waste. The pilot plant consisted of a semicontinous anaerobic reactor, a settling tank, a filtration process and an ionic exchange column. The study was focused on the filtration process, with natural zeolite as filtering material. In the filtration process different media sizes of natural zeolites packed in columns were 306 MILÁN ET AL.tested. The ranges of media size were 0.4 -1.0, 1.0 -3.0 and 3.0 -5.0 mm. Filtration systems operated by gravity flow from 2 to 10 m 3 m -2 h -1 . The process control was done by assays of solids, turbidity, total and soluble COD, ammonium and orthophosphate. The results showed a better behaviour in the filters packed with a media size range between 1.0 and 3.0 mm, operating at 7 m 3 m -2 h -1 , principally when effluent gross particles were previously retained in an Heterogeneous Media Filter, operating at 4 m 3 m -2 h -1 . The head losses diagrams in the filter runs were obtained, at each operational conditions. The hydraulic behaviour of traditional silica sand and natural zeolite beds were compared at the same operational conditions.

Effect of natural and modified zeolite addition on anaerobic digestion of piggery waste

“…Ionic exchange units using homoionic natural zeolite offer ammonium removals near 95%, operating in downflow mode (Milán et al, 1997). In addition, natural zeolite is an attractive solution as filtering media not only for effluents with low suspended organic content but also for effluents with high suspended matter (Reyes et al 1997, Milán et al, 1999. In this work the effect of modified and natural zeolite concentrations on anaerobic digestion of piggery waste was studied in laboratory and bench level conditions.…”

Bioreactor Performance in the Anaerobic Digestion of Cattle Manure: A Review

“…In a batch system, it is filled up with feedstock and allowed to operate through the degradation process in an amount of time that can be believed as the retention time; afterwards it is emptied. Then, the one-stage systems in which all the biochemical reactions occur in a single reactor, and lastly the two-stage or multi stage systems utilize independent reactors to separate the hydrolysis/acidification from acetogenesis and methanogenesis processes (Milan et al, 1999). In a well balanced AD process, all products of a previous metabolic stage are converted into the next stage without intermediate build up (Kbler et al, 2000).…”

“…Although, in most cases the liquid part is used for the sulphurization of the biogas in the washing tower or else the liquid part rich in sulphur is recycled to the digestate (Coleran, 2000). In addition, it was reported by Milan et al (1999) that the use of filtration technique for AD effluent treatment has been commonly applied because of high COD removal, ammonia compound, orthophosphate, and turbidity.…”

Biological degradation of a mixture of municipal wastewater and organic garbage leachate in expanded bed anaerobic reactors and a zeolite filter

“…The expanded granular bed reactor (EGSB) is a modification by the increase of the upflow liquid velocity where the bed is expanded with superficial velocities of 10 m/h, can be operated at short HRT and has been used between other processes for the treatment of wastewater from the petrochemical industry that contains high concentration of recalcitrant compounds (Almendariz et al 2005), although also has been used in the treatment of low concentrations municipal wastewater, or for anaerobic effluents postreatment (Kato 1994;Kato et al 2003;Pé rez 2004). In anaerobic filters the packing material may play an important role; zeolite has been reported as a suitable material because improves metabolic activity of anaerobic microorganisms by supplementing necessary trace elements, also is a good filtering media for solids retention and has been extensively used as an ion exchanger for ammonium removal (Nguyen & Tanner 1998;Milá n et al 1999;Leyva-Ramos et al 2004).…”