Effects of Organic Loading, Influent Concentration, and Feed Time on Biohydrogen Production in a Mechanically Stirred AnSBBR Treating Sucrose-Based Wastewater

Abstract

An anaerobic sequencing batch biofilm reactor (AnSBBR-total volume 7.5 L; liquid volume 3.6 L; treated volume per cycle 1.5 L) treated sucrose-based wastewater to produce biohydrogen (at 30 °C). Different applied volumetric organic loads (AVOL of 9.0, 12.0, 13.5, 18.0, and 27.0 kg COD m(-3) day(-1)), which were varied according to the influent concentration (3,600 and 5,400 mg COD L(-1)) and cycle length (4, 3, and 2 h), have been used to assess the following parameters: productivity and yield of biohydrogen per applied and removed load, reactor stability, and efficiency. The removed organic matter (COD) remained stable and close to 18 % and carbohydrates (sucrose) uptake rate remained between 83 and 97 % during operation. The decrease in removal performance of the reactor with increasing AVOL, by increasing the influent concentration (at constant cycle length) and decreasing the cycle lengths (at constant influent concentrations), resulted in lower conversion efficiencies. Under all conditions, when organic load increased there was a predominance of acetic, propionic, and butyric acid as well as ethanol. The highest concentration of biohydrogen in the biogas (24-25 %) was achieved at conditions with AVOL of 12.0 and 13.5 kg COD m(-3) day(-1), the highest daily production rate (0.139 mol H2 day(-1)) was achieved at AVOL of 18.0 kg COD m(-3) day(-1), and the highest production yields per removed and applied load were 2.83 and 3.04 mol H2 kg SUC(-1), respectively, at AVOL of 13.5 kg COD m(-3) day(-1). The results indicated that the best productivity tends to occur at higher organic loads, as this parameter involves the "biochemical generation" of biogas, and the best yield tends to occur at lower and/or intermediate organic loads, as this parameter involves "biochemical consumption" of the substrate.

BIOHYDROGEN FROM CHEESE WHEY TREATMENT IN AN AnSBBR: ACHIEVING PROCESS STABILITY

“…The inoculum was obtained from previous hydrogen production studies (Manssouri et al, 2013;Santos et al, 2014). The support material, along with the biomass grown in these reactors, were stored in a refrigerator and used in the present work.…”

“…An apparent density of 470 g.L -1 and a real density of 825 g.L -1 were encountered, allowing calculation of a bed porosity of 43% (Manssouri et al, 2013;Santos et al, 2014).…”

The "Chemical Oxygen Demand / Total Volatile Acids" Ratio as an Anaerobic Treatability Indicator for Landfill Leachates

“…As this configuration presented good results treating synthetic wastewaters (removal efficiency up to 86%), the AnSBBR started to be studied and developed (Ratusznei et al, 2003;Rodrigues et al, 2003;Cubas et al, 2004;Pinho et al, 2004;Siman et al, 2004;Bezerra et al, 2010;Costabile et al, 2010). The AnSBBR was also tested and optimized with many types of wastewaters, including diluted whey (Damasceno et al, 2007), sewage (Sarti et al, 2007) wastewater of the personal-care industry (Oliveira et al, 2009), biodiesel production effluent (Selma et al, 2010;Bezerra et al, 2010), sucrose-based wastewater (Manssouri et al 2013) among other studies for optimization and improvement of the AnSBBR Silva et al, 2011;Vich et al, 2011).…”

Codigestão de vinhaça e melaço em biorreator anaeróbio operado em bateladas sequenciais com biomassa imobilizada visando a produção de hidrogênio

“…As Figuras 3.2 e 3.3 mostram configurações típicas dos reatores ASBR e AnSBBR (Manssouri et al, 2013;Lovato et al, 2012). Para aperfeiçoar o sistema de tratamento biológico, existem diversas estratégias de controle operacional nos reatores; as seguintes seções são dedicadas a mostrar as variáveis que desempenham um papel importante no controle dos reatores em estudo.…”

“…Figura 3.2 -ASBR / AnSBBR com agitação mecânica por impelidor (AM) (Manssouri et al, 2013) [1 -Reator; 2 -Cesto contendo material de suporte para a biomassa (tratando-se de um AnSBBR; no caso de um ASBR, esse cesto não é colocado); 3 -Afluente; 4 -Bomba de alimentação; 5 -Efluente; 6 -Bomba de descarga; 7 -Saída de biogás; 8 -Sistema de agitação; 9 -Controle de temperatura (banho termostático); 10 -Sistema de automação].…”