Application of anaerobic baffled reactor to produce volatile fatty acids by acidification of primary sludge

A lab-scale Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) was applied to treat a primary sludge taken from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. In this experiment, acidogenic reaction was promoted by operating the ABR with short hydraulic retention time (HRT) to produce sufficient volatile fatty acids (VFA) instead of production of methane. The performance of ABR on the VFA production and total solids reduction was observed with different operating conditions with 2, 4, 6, and 8 days of HRT. Corresponding organic loading rates were 6.7, 3.4, 2.2, and $1.6kgCOD_{cr}/m^3{\cdot}day$. As HRT increased the removal rate of TCOD was also increased (82.5, 84.2, 96.9, and 95.9 % in average for HRT of 2, 4, 6, and 8 days, respectively) because the settlement of solids was enhanced in the baffle by the decrease of upflow velocity. At HRT of 2 days the average concentration of VFA in the effluent was measured at $1,306{\pm}552$ mgCOD/L corresponding to 107 % increment as compared to the VFA concentration in the influent. However, as HRT increased VFA concentraiotn was decreased to $143{\pm}552$ mgCOD/L at HRT of 8 days. The reduction rates of total solids were 12.2, 26.5, 24.8, and 43.0 % for HRT of 2, 4, 6, and 8 days. As HRT increased the hydrolysis of organic particulate matters in the reactor was enhanced due to the increasing of solids retention time in the baffle zone with low upflow velocity in long HRT condition. Consequently, we found that a primary sludge became a good source of VFA production by the application of ABR process with HRT less than 4 days and the 12-26 % of total solids reduction was expected at these conditions.

Anaerobic Baffled Reactor 공정을 이용한 1차 슬러지 산발효에 대한 연구