Pergamon Wat Sei Tech Vol 40, No.8. 9p. 221-228, 1999 © 1999 1AWQ Pablished by Elsevier Selence Lid Printed in Great Bria. All rights reserved 0273-12239 $20.00 + 0.00, PUL: $0273-1223(99)00629-0 ANAEROBIC TREATMENT OF LOW, MEDIUM AND HIGH STRENGTH EFFLUENT IN THE AGRO-INDUSTRY W. Driessen and P. Yspeert Paques Water Systems B.V., P.O. Box 52, 8560 AB Balk, The Netherlands ABSTRACT Based on the widely applied UASB system for anaerobic wastewater treatment a new generation of more advanced anaerobic reactor systems have recently been developed, according to the so-called expanded sludge bed concept. A successful version of this concept is the Internal Circulation (IC) reactor, characterized by the biogas separation in two stages within a reactor with a high height/diameter ratio and the sgas-driven internal effluent circulation. The IC system can handle high upflow liquid and gas velocities, ‘which makes treatment of low strength effluents at short hydraulic retention times, as well as treatment of high strength effluents at very high volumetric loading rates feasible. During the past years the IC technology has been successfully applied at full scale on a variety of industrial wastewaters. This article describes the design and operational results of thee full scale anaerobic treatment plants with Internal Circulation reactors treating low, medium and high strength effluents from a dairy industry, food processing plant and brewery respectively. © 1999 LAWQ Published by Elsevier Science Lid. All rights reserved. KEYWORDS Anaerobic treatment; industrial wastewater; IC; EGSB; UASB; dairy; food; brewery. INTRODUCTION The Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) system has become the most widely applied reactor technology for high rate anaerobic treatment of industrial effluents. The main reason for the success of the UASB concept is its relatively high treatment capacity compared to other systems, which permits the employment of compact and economic wastewater treatment plants. ‘The treatment potential of anaerobic systems fs basically defined by the capacity to retain large amounts of biomass with a high methanogenic activity. In UASB reactors effective sludge retention is accomplished by use of a sophisticated three-phase-separator on top of the reactor, which separates biogas, sludge and treated effluent. The biomass develops in the form of well settleable, dense granular particles with high conversion rates, However, the limits of the UASB design at high loading rates are known from full scale experience, i-. from the phenomenon of the washout of granules. Although the granules themselves have superior settling, characteristics (Lettinga et al., 1980), sludge retention in UASB reactors becomes critical at high upflow gas and liquid velocities. Besides, the maximum potential methanogenic activity of granular biomass appears to bbe much higher than the sludge loading rates as generally applied in full scale reactors (Pereboom and zaiW. DRIESSEN and P. YSPEERT Vereijken, 1995). ‘The UASB system seems thus also restricted in its treatment capacity because of mass transfer limitations due to sub-optimal mixing conditions inside the reactor. ‘The UASB process is mostly applied on medium strength industrial effluents having a COD concentration in the range of 3000 - 7000 mg/l. The organic loading capacity and the hydraulic capacity are the most critical design critetia for upflow sludge bed reactors. While the reactor design for treating low strength effluents is ‘mostly hydraulically limited, for treating high strength effluent the system is generally limited by its organic loading capacity For medium and high strength industrial wastewaters (COD > 2500 mg/l) the defining parameter for the size of the reactor will be the admissible organic or volumetric loading rate, usually expressed in terms of kg COD per m* reactor volume per day. Conventional UASB reactors are generally designed for loading rates not exceeding 15 kgCOD/m'.d at an optimum temperature of 35°C. For treatment of low concentrated wastewaters (COD < 2500 mg/l) the hydraulic capacity of the reactor system is the limiting parameter, which can be expressed as the liquid upflow velocity (in metres per hour) and the hydraulic retention time (in hours). UASB reactors are usually designed for maximum upflow velocities of 1.3 m/h or minimum hydraulic retention times of approx. 4-5 h. Recycling of anaerobically treated effluent and mixing with incoming wastewater is often applied because of stable process performance and savings on neutralising agents for pH control. However, in case of low strength wastewaters the reactor design is hydraulically defined and therefore limiting the application of external recirculation. In order to overcome the hydraulic and organic loading limitations of the UASB reactors, new high rate reactor concepts with an increased height/diameter ratio have been developed. These systems operate with higher upflow velocities and organic loading rates. Increased biomass activity is obtained as a result of a more optimal contact between wastewater and biomass. When granulated anaerobic sludge is used as active biomass these reactors are referred to as EGSB (Expanded Granular Sludge Bed) reactors (Lettinga et al., 1997). A successful version of this concept is the IC (Internal Circulation) reactor which has found widespread application for the anaerobic treatment of industrial effluents (Yspeert et al., 1993; Driessen et al., 1996 and 1997; Vellinga er al., 1986). The IC re: In Figure 1 a schematic drawing of the IC reactor is shown. The cylindrical reactor can vary in height between 16 and 24 m with diameters up to 9.5 m. The influent (1) enters the reactor at the bottom via a distribution system, where influent, recycled sludge and effluent are mixed (2). The first reactor compartment (3) contains an expanded granular sludge bed, where most of the COD is converted into biogas. The biogas is collected by the lower level phase separator (4) and is used to generate a gas lift by which water and sludge are carried upward via the riser pipe (5) to the gas/liquid separator (6) on top of the reactor, where the biogas (7) leaves the system. The water/sludge mixture flows downwards to the reactor bottom via the downer pipe (8), resulting in the internal circulation flow. In the second reactor compartment (9) residual biodegradable COD is removed. The biogas produced in the upper compartment is collected in the top phase-separator (10), while the treated effluent (11) leaves the reactor via overflow weirs. The Internal Circulation (IC) technology is based on the proven UASB process by using phase-separators for retention of granular sludge. In fact the IC reactor consists of two UASB reactor compartments on top of each ‘other, one high loaded and one low loaded. Its special features are the separation of biogas in two stages and the internal effluent circulation driven by the produced gas,Anaerobic treatment of agto-industry effluent 223 Figure : Schematic of the IC rector, Effective biomass retention in the IC reactor is ensured by the two-stage phase separator concept. The first separator separates biogas and water, while the second separator on top separates mainly biosolids and water. As most of the produced biogas is removed in the first separator of the bottom compartment, there is little turbulence left in the top compartment. The second separator can therefore effectively separate the biomass solids from the treated effluent without interference by high gas velocities. In the bottom reactor compartment incoming wastewater is effectively mixed with the sludge and effluent from the internal circulation stream, which results in a direct dilution and conditioning of the influent, The dense anaerobic sludge bed is expanded by the elevated upward flow of influent, circulation flow and produced biogas. Internal circulation ‘The internal circulation is driven by the reactor gas flow. The flow rate of the intemal circulation consequently depends on the influent COD and is therefore self-regulating: at high influent COD concentrations, more is circulated while at lower influent COD concentrations, less is circulated. Since the internal circulation flow does not pass through the second reactor compartment, it does not lead to an increased superficial liquid velocity in the separator at the top of the reactor. This feature permits extreme high effluent recycle rates. The effective mixing of the bulk liquid phase for substrate-biomass contact results in a high sludge activity. Comparison tests showed that anaerobic granular sludge from IC reactors often have higher acetoclastic methanogenic activities than anaerobic sludge from UASB reactors (Pereboom and Vereijken, 1995). Compared to single-stage separator concepts, like the UASB and other EGSB systems, the IC reactor can therefore be operated at higher organic and hydraulic loadings rates. CASE STUDIES This paper describes three different anacrobic wastewater treatment plants in which the IC technology is the heart of the installation, treating a low strength dairy plant effluent, a medium strength food processing plant effluent and a high strength brewery effluent. The characteristics of the three wastewaters arc described in Table 1.204 \W. DRIESSEN and P. YSPEERT Table 1. Typical characteristics of various industrial effluents PARAMETER ~ ‘UNIT DAIRY FOOD BREWERY" Flow ma | 30004000 | 3000-2500] — 300-1200 COD average mefl 1550 4500 13000 COD range mg/l 820-2950 1000 - 7500 3000 - 23000 SS mg/l 150 - 5007 350° 950 Temperature °C 37 27 35 pH 115! os | 63 * weekly averaged values; estimate based on | mg COD/mg $S; ’ prior nevtralization; reactor influent data Although the described wastewater treatment plants comprise a pre-treatment step, an anaerobic step and sometimes an aerobic step, the presented removal efficiencies do refer to the anaerobic treatment plant only. Case 1: Dairy industry - low strength wastewater The main products of the described dairy plant are baby milk powder and condensed milk. Prior to construction of the current anaerobic wastewater treatment plant the dairy plant operated two aerated equalization tanks in parallel mode, The current wastewater treatment plant has made use of these tanks by retrofitting one tank into a pre-acidification tank and one tank into an aerobic polishing tank. As presented in figure 2 the current effluent treatment plant comprises a 2000 m? equalization tank, a 400 m* calamity tank, 2 400 m? anaerobic IC reactor and a 2400 m* aeration tank. As the treatment plant is remote from the dairy plant and because of the relatively small quantity the biogas is flared off. Because of alkaline cleaning (CIP) inside the dairy plant the raw wastewater has a relatively high average pH of 11.5. Hydrochloric acid is dosed into the equalization tank to control the pH at around 7-7.5. A calamity tank was installed for temporary storage of wastewater with extremely high pH levels. FaaRe || ec CALAMIVTANK BUFFERTANK —ICREACTOR-—_AERATIONTANK "200 m 2000 ‘200 2400 Figure 2. Schematic process flow diagram of wastewater at dairy plant. Figure 3 presents the total-COD removal efficiency over the anaerobic plant at various applied volumetric loading rates. While the total-COD removal averaged 51% it seemed more or less independent of the applied volumetric loading rates. The total-COD of the raw wastewater averaged 1550 mg/l (ranging from 380 up to 5120 mg/l), The total-COD and soluble COD concentration of the anaerobic effluent averaged respectively 890 and 465 mg/l. The removal of anaerobic biodegradable COD was almost complete as the average volatile fatty acid concentration in the anaerobic effluent was less than 1.5 meq/l (approximately 100 mg/). The relatively low COD removal efficiency was mainly due to the occurrence of very low COD influent concentrations of less than 1000 mg/! and the presence of insoluble COD.‘Anaerobic treatment of agro-industry effluent 225 80 T 1 ve 60 i 7 #440 ae 40 + oe ro ‘COD REMOVAL (%) 0 5 10 15 20 25 VOLUMETRIC LOADING RATE (KG/M3.D) Figure 3. COD removal versus volumetric loading rate at dary plant To enhance the pre-acidification process some external recirculation of the anaerobic effluent into the equalization tank was allowed for. As a result of the raw wastewater feed flow and the recirculation flow, the total superficial velocity at the top of the IC reactor was as high as 8.4 ml/h, Figure 4 presents the COD removal at the various applied hydraulic retention times (HRT). The hydraulic retention time is expressed as the ratio of the volume of the IC reactor and the raw wastewater feed flow. However, due to the low COD concentration the IC reactor was hydraulically limited in its design, so that extemal recirculation was limited to 10-15 % only. Despite the short hydraulic retention times of sometimes no more than 2.6 hours the performance of the IC reactor seemed not to be influenced by the applied hydraulic retention times. COD REMOVAL (%) 3 3.5 4 HYDRAULIC RETENTION TIME (H) Figure 4. COD removal versus hydraulic retention time at dairy plant. Case 2: Food industry - medium strength wastewater The described food processing plant produces salads based on potatoes and various vegetables. Figure 5 presents the schematic flow diagram of the complete wastewater treatment plant. To remove the excess of suspended solids the wastewater is pre-treated in a flotation unit and subsequently in a primary clarifier. The Clarified wastewater flows into a 2000 rm? equalization tank to maintain a relatively equal flow to the anaerobic IC reactor. The anaerobically treated effluent flows into an activated sludge plant and is finally Polished in a lagoon system. At first the treatment plant consisted of the solid removal system and aerobic system only, while years later a 400 m? anaerobic IC reactor was built leading to significant reduction in operational costs. The produced biogas is incinerated in a gas engine for power generation. In the equalization tank, lime and caustic can be dosed to control the pH at 6.5, Nitrogen and phosphorus are dosed as these are insufficiently present in the wastewater.26 W. DRIESSEN and P. YSPEERT Figure 5. Schematic process flow diagram of wastewater at food processing plant, Figure 6 presents the COD removal efficiency of the IC reactor at various applied volumetric loading rates. ‘The total-COD removal efficiency of the IC reactor averaged 80 % and seemed not to be depending on the applied volumetric loading rate. The total-COD concentration of the raw wastewater averaged 4550 mg/l (ranging from 995 up to 7450 mg/l), while total and soluble-COD concentration of the anaerobic effluent averaged 909 mg/l and 606 mg/l respectively. The IC reactor maintained a stable process performance at volumetric loading rates up to 42 kg/m?.d. as is indicated by the low average volatile fatty acid concentration in the anaerobically treated effluent of 2.2 meqjl (approximately 150 mg/l). COD REMOVAL (%) ° 10 20 30 40 50 VOLUMETRIC LOADING RATE (KG/M3.D) Figure 6. COD removal versus volumetric loading rate at food processing plant. Figure 7 presents the COD removal efficiency at various applied hydraulic retention times. While hydraulic retention times varied between 3.6 up to 9.1 h the COD removal efficiency remained stable around 80% ‘The superficial upflow velocity in the IC reactor was around 4.5 m/hAnaerobic treatment of agro-industy effluent 227 100 COD REMOVAL (%) HYDRAULIC RETENTION TIME (H) Figure 7. COD removal versus hydraulic retention time at food processing plant Case 3: Brewery - high strength wastewater In this case the anaerobic treatment plant has been designed to treat specific highly concentrated effluents from a brewery, as these effluents represented a relatively small volume and a large fraction of the total discharged COD-load. The bulk of total brewery wastewater was discharged to the sewer to be treated by a municipal sewage treatment plant. |} 200m “om "200m Figure 8, Schematic process flow diagram of wastewater at brewery plant. ‘The highly concentrated wastewater had a COD ranging from 40,000 to 90,000 mg/l and a pH of 4.0 and was collected in a buffer tank of 200 m>. As the COD of this wastewater was too high for direct treatment, in the following mix tank low strength brewery wastewater (COD 3000 mg/l) was added for dilution. 100 80 60 40 t | COD REMOVAL (24) ° 10 20 30 40 VOLUMETRIC LOADING RATE (KG/M®.D) Figure 9. COD removal versus volumetric loading rate at brewery plant The mixed influent to the IC reactor had an average total-COD concentration of 13,000 mg/l up to a maximum of 23,000 mg/l. Anaerobic effluent was partly extemally recycled to the mix tank, where nutrients228 Ww. DRI EN and P. YSPEERT were added and caustic was dosed if the pH dropped below 6.3. Since influent suspended solids concentration was relative high (500-1500 mg/l), treatment in a UASB reactor would not have been feasible because of the accumulation of wastewater solids in the sludge bed. In the IC reactor however, suspended solids passed through the system due to the elevated upflow velocities. In Figure 9 the COD removal efficiency is shown as a function of the applied volumetric loading rate. In a wide range of loading rates the removal efficiency was 70-90 %. Average total and soluble COD of the anaerobic effluent were 2300 mg/l and 650 mg/l. The total-COD efficiency was affected by the relatively high concentration of wastewater suspended solids flowing through the reactor. Soluble-COD removal reached 80-98 %. The efficiency remained stable even at volumetric loadings as high as 36 keCOD/m'. 100 = COD REMOVAL (%) ° 5 10 15 20 25 HYDRAULIC RETENTION TIME (H) Figure 10. COD removal versus hydraulic retention time at brewery plant Figure 10 shows the COD removal at different hydraulic retention times. Due to the high influent concentration the hydraulic retention times were relatively high (8-24 h). At lower retention times the COD removal appears to be lower than at higher retention times. This can be explained from the fluctuating influent COD and the more constant effluent COD levels. When high strength wastewater was insufficiently available more diluted wastewater was treated in order to utilize the treatment capacity. CONCLUSIONS The special features of the intemal circulation reactor contribute to successful anaerobic treatment of industrial effluents with COD concentration ranging from 1000 up to 23,000 mg/l. Medium and high strength wastewater can be treated in the IC reactor at volumetric loading rates up to 35 kgCOD/m’.d, while for treatment of low strength wastewater hydraulic retention times as low as 2.6 hours are feasible. Observed COD removal appeared to be independent of applied volumetric loading rates and hydraulic retention times. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors kindly acknowledge Y. Yspeert, R. De Ro contribution regarding collection and handling of the data. Spierings and J. Faber for their valuable REFERENCES Driessen, W., Habets, L. and Groeneveld, N, (1996) New development in the design of anaerobic sludge bed reactors. Presented at the 2° IAWQ Conference on Pretreatment of Industrial Wastewaters. October 16-18, Athens, Greece, 9p. Driessen, W., Habets, L. and Vereijken, T. 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