Pre-acidification greatly improved granules physicochemical properties and operational stability of Upflow anaerobic sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor treating low-strength starch wastewater.

A two-stage process consisting of a pre-acidification unit and an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor (UASBT-S) was compared with a one-stage UASB reactor (UASBO-S) to evaluate the treatment stability of starch wastewater (SW). The Two-stage process provided higher treatment stability than UASBO-S. Sludge floatation occurred in the UASBO-S when the organic loading rate (OLR) was increased to 4 g-COD/L/d, beyond which a paste-like membrane structure adhered to the granules was observed. Further analysis suggests that the substrate derived polysaccharide components embedded in the loosely-bound extracellular polymeric substances (LB-EPS), triggered significant increase in the protein/polysaccharide ratio in the tightly-bound EPS (TB-EPS), and was suggested to result in the granules floatation and disintegration. During the pre-acidification, the starch was mainly converted to acetic and propionic acids. The pre-acidification was beneficial for reducing the EPS content fluctuations in the UASBT-S, which greatly improved settling capability and strength of the granular sludge.

A gradual change between methanogenesis and sulfidogenesis during a long-term UASB treatment of sulfate-rich chemical wastewater.

The competition between methane-producing archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria is an important topic in anaerobic wastewater treatment. In this study, an Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor (UASB) was operated for 330 days to evaluate the treatment performance of sulfate-rich wastewater. The effects of competition change between methane production and sulfate reduction on the organic removal efficiency, methane production, and electrons allocation were investigated. Synthetic wastewater was composed of ethanol and acetate with a chemical oxygen demand (COD)/SO42- of 1.0. As a result, the COD removal efficiency achieved in long-term treatment was higher than 90%. During the initial stage, methane production was the dominant reaction. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) could only partially oxidize ethanol to acetate, and methane-producing archaea (MPA) utilized acetate for methane production. Methane production declined gradually over the long-term operation, whereas the sulfate-reducing efficiency increased. However, UASB performed well throughout the experiment because there was no significant inhibition. After the complete reduction of the sulfate, MPA converted the remaining COD into methane.