Pretreatment of high strength wastewater by an anaerobic fluidised bed process. Part II response to organic load transients

Abstract
An anaerobic fluidised bed system was fed with a carbohydrate substrate of Bod20 5approximately 3000 mgL‐1, equivalent to a continuous load of 16.7 kg BOD m‐3 bed d‐1. One hour load transients were imposed upon this system by increasing the strength of the substrate. A 2–4 time load transient has little effect on either the performance of the system or the concentration of intermediate products. Load transients of 10–20 times the continuous load generated high concentrations of propionic acid and hydrogen and a consequent change in methane yields. The system has been demonstrated as capable of handling organic shock loads but for extremely erratic loading requiring some load equalisation.

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