Batch Biological Treatment of Inhibitory Substrates

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Abstract
A number of papers have been published on the treatment of inhibitory substrates in completely mixed, continuous activated sludge (CMAS) systems, but little information exists on the treatment of inhibitory compounds in batch reactors. With the increasing use of sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) for industrial waste treatment, it is important to evaluate the effects of reactor design and operation on treatment performance. A procedure for optimizing inhibitory substrate removal rate in an SBR is presented in this paper. The average rate of removal over the course of one batch cycle is shown to depend on the initial substrate concentration in the reactor. For a given loading rate, the initial substrate concentration can be controlled by adjusting cycle times and through other operating strategies. Within physical constraints of the system, an optimum value for initial concentration can be selected to maximize loading rates in reactor design, or to maximize substrate removal rates for existing plants.