War.I~es.Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 371-378. 1992 0043-1354/92 $$.00+ 0.

00
Printed in Great Britain.All rights reserved Copyright ~ 1992 Pergamon Press pie

HYDRODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE

ANAEROBIC BAFFLED REACTOR
A. Gxomcra *O and D. C. STUCX~
Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, England

(First received April 1990;accepted in revisedfrom September 1991)

Almract--The anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) contains a mixed anaerobic culture segregated into
compartments. This paper presents residence time distribution studies done on both clean and working
reactors, to investigate the mixing patterns and dead spaces in this novel type of reactor. The results show
that the mixing is characterized by a number of theoretical perfectly-mixed compartments which correlates
closely with the actual number of compartments in the reactor, especially at low hydraulic residence times
(HRT). The fraction of dead space in the ABR is low compared to other designs of anaerobic digesters.
The dead space can be shown to be made up partly of biological dead space (due to presence of biomass)
which decreases with HRT, and partly of hydraulic dead space (due to the flow patterns) which increases
with HRT. Hence there is no direct correlation between dead space and HRT.

Key words--anaerobic baffled reactor, mixing flow, dead space, dead zone, hydraulic residence time
distribution

INTRODUC'T1ON London. They were run continuously using a feed with

a COD concentration of 4 g/I.
The developments in the design of anaerobic digesters,
The experiments to study time distributions were
away from the simple stirred tank, have led to reactors
done with an impulse input, i.e. an injection of tracer
with complex flow patterns which are correspondingly
material (using a I ml syringe) just before the inlet of
difficult to model. The anaerobic baffled reactor
the reactor. Effluent samples were taken over 2.5
(ABR) is a novel type of reactor first described by
hydraulic residence times (HRTs), and the concen-
Bachmann et aL (1983), which allows high rates of
tration of tracer measured in the samples. The tracer
hydraulic throughput with very little loss of biomass
materials and analytical methods used are described
from the reactor, and a high reaction rate per unit
below. The major parameters influencing the degree
volume. The ABR achieves this by means of a design
of mixing were identified to be the effect of solids
which is both simple and cheap to contruct, since there
(i.e. biomass concentration), the number of compart-
are no moving parts or mechanical mixing devices
ments and the hydraulic residence time. The exper-
(Fig. I). High residence times of bacterial cells within
iments were designed as far as possible to vary one
the reactor have been found, together with good
parameter at a time while holding the others constant
mixing, providing a high rate of contact between the
(Table 2).
cells and their substrate (Grobicki, 1989). This paper
describes an experimental technique and an analytical
(!) Effect of solids (biomass concentration)
approach which have been used to describe the flow
inside the reactor, leading to a characterization on Reactors 2 and 3 were initially run with no biomass
which a model can be based. at all, feeding only tapwater into the inlet (runs !-5,
Table 2). Thereafter, RTD runs were carried out while
DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS the reactors were operating, with a known average
concentration ofbiomass in each case. Reactors I and
The experiments presented here were run on four 2 contained very similar biomass concentrations (runs
anaerobic baffled reactors of slightly different dimen- 6-1 I). However, reactors 3 and 4 were run at the same
sions and containing a different number of compart- HRT with different levels of biomass (runs 12-17).
ments (Table I). The first residence time distribution
(RTD) studies were done with clean reactors, using (2) Number of compartments (reactor number)
only tap water. Thereafter, the reactors were inocu-
Reactors !, 2, 3 and 4 contained 4, 6, 8 and 8
lated with digester sludge from the solids treatment
compartments, respectively (Table 2).
stage at Mogden Sewage Works, Hounslow, West
(3) Hydraulic residence time (HRT)
*Present address: Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of Witwatersrand, P.O. WITS, 2050 Johan- Hydraulic residence times used for the runs varied
nesburg, Republic of South Africa. from 80 to I h.

371
372 A. Gaomcrd and D. C. Srucg-~f

Gas t a k e - o f f ond measurement

Influent

Ii
Effluent

Fig. 1. The, anaerobic baffled reactor.

Reproducibility of data was taken into consider-
ation, by duplicating some runs. It was found to be
highly dependent on experimental technique. Par-
ameters which were not tested, because of time
constraints, include the effects of gas mixing, changes
in the viscosity of the bulk liquid and the degree of
granulation of the biomass (particle size distribution).
water was aspirated through the burner between every
sample, to zero the machine and lithium standards of 1, 2,
5 and 10 mg/l were aspirated at the beginning and end of
every analysis to provide calibration curves and to check
for any drift that may have occurred in the instrument.
The lithium concentration of samples obtained in the exper-
iments were always below 10 rag/I, even at the peak of the
curve.

EXPERIMENTAL METIlODS RESULTS

For the residence time distribution studies done with no It was correctly assumed that the residence time
biomass in thc reactors, and feeding only tap water in the distributions would differ from perfect plug flow, and
influcnt, fiuoresccin (supplied by BDH) was used as the that the peak of tracer concentration would be ob-
tracer material, for ease and speed of analysis. The concen-
tration of fluorescein in the effluent was mcasured by tained at some time less than one hydraulic residence
absorbancc at a wavclcngth of 490 nm. using a Perkin- time (HRT). In order to compare the mixing patterns
Elmer u.v..vis spectrophotomcter, model 554. The optimum at different HRTs, the unit of time was normalized
wavelength of 490 nm was found by generating a spectrum (dimensionless):
of the absorbance of fluorescein over a range of u.v.
wavelengths (200-800nm). Tap water was used as the time (h)
blank. normalized time 0 = (Hh RT
--'-'~" (I)
For the experiments done with biomass in the reactors,
lithium chloride (BDH, AnalaR grade) was used as the
tracer material. Previous work (Tomlinson and Chambers, Emuent samples were taken at regularly-spaced inter-
1979) has shown that lithium does not absorb onto sludge vals from the time of injection (0 = 0) up to 0 = 0.6;
particles, and it is not taken up by the micro-organisms as thereafter at more frequent intervals until 0 = I; and
a nutrient. This was confirmed by mass balances on the again at well-spaced intervals until 0 = 2.5, or until
lithium used in the RTD studies reported here, since recov-
ery of lithium in the effluent averaged 99.4% over all these the tracer concentration dropped too low to measure,
runs. The density of the concentrated solution of lithium whichever came first. The results were input to a
chloride used for injection was not significantly different to computer programme which calculated the normal-
the density of the liquid phase of the reactor. For these ized concentration as follows:
reasons it is evident that the residence time of the tracer
material in the reactor is minimally affected by the charac- concentration (rag/l)
teristics of the tracer material itself, and the C-curve can be normalized concentration C =
taken as an accurate representation of the hydrodynamics of initial cone. (rag/l)
the reactor. (2)
The instrument used to measure lithium concentration
was an atomic absorption/atomic emission (aa/ae) spectro- Typical C-curves (C vs 0) thus obtained are shown in
photometer from Instrumentation Laboratory, model 151. Fig. 2. These curves were then analysed further, as the
A lithium lamp was used with a current of 8 mA, with the programme calculated the mean and variance of the
monochromator set at a wavelength of 670.8nm. The
burner was fuelled with an air-acetylene mixture. Distilled curve, the fraction o f dead space in the reactor, the
overall dispersion number (D/uL), and the equival-
ence number o f perfectly-mixed tanks in series, N.
Table I, Characteristics of laboratory Reactors I-4
The calculation methods are given below, and results
Reactor No. I 2 3 4
for runs 1-17 are summarized in Table 3.
External dimensions (cm):
length 36 36 48 48 The programme calculated the mean and the vari-
width 15 15 15 15 ance o f the curve, and finally calculated the dead
height 30 30 30 30 space in the reactor, using a model derived from
Working volume (litres) 8200 7800 10.44)0 10.400
No. of compartments 4 6 8 8 Levenspiel (I 974). The cut-off point for the "tail" was
Compartment volume (ml) 2 0 5 0 1300 1300 1300 taken at 0 = 2, as in Levenspiel's model. Integration
Liquid depth (cm) 20.7 21.1 20.89 20.8 under the curve was done numerically. The accuracy
 Hydrodynamicsof anaerobicbathedreactor 373

Tabk 2. Design of aqcrimmt~ on raideae time dktributioaa

Run No. CUidr~ Rewtor No. HRT
I (no biomass) 2 12b
2 and 3 2Md3 5b
4 and5 2uut3 lb
6ti7 (qlul biomaw in both reactors: lpprox.6 fl) I&2 BOb
ad9 IUld2 40b
ioand II I urd 2 2Ob
I2 md 13 (unqual biomass: see Tabk 3) 3uld4 2Ob
14 Uxt IS 3md4 IOb
16and 17 3md4 5h

of the integrations depends largely on the The fraction of dead space is given by:
spacing of the points on the curve, hence points
were interpolated linearly until the error obtained vd
-
V
= I -u;& (5)
on the integrations dropped below 0.1% in each
case.
where
The area under the curve between 0 = 0 and 0 = 2
represents the fraction of tracer recovered within 2
vd =volume of dead space in the reactor (litres).
residence times (LT.).while the total area under the C
V = theoretical working volume of reactor (lit@.
curve is unity.

1 The results given by the model for each individual

x.f(x).dx run were input to a spreadsheet to display the
Mean: s0 results in graphs and to calculate the parameters N
PC,= 2 (3)
(tanks-in-series model) and D/uL (dispersion model).
f(x). dx
Regression analyses were also performed using the
I0
spreadsheet. The information regarding biomass con-
1 centration and gas production in each run derives
(.r -Ir,)‘./(x)*dx from the performance data, which is presented else-
I
Variance: ur = O (4) where (Grobicki and Stuckey, 1991). The following
:/(x ) * dx ’ equations from the respective models were used to
I calculate N and DluL.

500

k I I I I J
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 05 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.3
Normoltzed tlmr Normolurd time

0.3 10 15 2.0 2.3

Nofmolwed tmw Normalhad tima
Fig. 2. (A) Run 2: Reactor 2. 5 h HRT. no biomass, 6 compartments. (B) Run 3: Reactor 3, 5 h HRT,
no biomass, 8 compartments. (C) Run 16: Reactor 3. 5 h HRT, biomassconcentration X - 6.16 g/l. @)
Run 17: Reactor 4, 5 h HRT, X - 8.5 g/l.
374 A. GltOmCIUand D. C. STucr,~

Table 3. Resultsof residem:¢time distributionstudies time (HRT). For Reactor 2 (with 6 compartments),
Rctemion Gas the inverse Peeler number (D/uL) varied by only
Run No. time Biomass No. of production
(P-amctor No.) (h) (fl) compartments (ml/h) 12.5%, while the HRT varied from 12 to I h, D/uL
I (2) 12 0 6 0 first increased, then decreased, as the HRT decreased.
2 (2) 5 0 6 0 This fluctuating trend indicates that the effects of
3 (3) 5 0 8 0 molecular diffusion may be ignored in the analysis of
4 (2) I 0 6 0
5 (3) 1 0 $ 0 the mixing patterns, since we would expect to see a
6 (I) 80 6.36 4 150 continuous decrease in D/uL with decreasing HRT, if
7 (2) 80 6.44 6 150 molecular diffusion was an important component of
8 (I) 40 5.58 4 250 the longitudinal dispersion. The average number of
9 (2) 40 5.88 6 290
I0 (I) 20 5.$9 4 450 theoretical stirred tanks, N, was 6.4. For Reactor 4
II (2) 20 5.87 6 450 (with 8 compartments) D/uL remained constant at
12 (3) 20 5.58 8 774 0.0766 (N = 7) while HRT decreased from 5 to 1 h.
13 (4) 20 3.49 8 691 The fraction of dead space in the runs with no
14 (3) 10 2.04 8 739
15 (4) 10 6.56 8 1485 biomass was low (between 1 and 8%), with one
16 (3) 5 6.16 8 1938 anomalous result in Run 3, where the model calcu-
17 (3) 5 8.5 8 1804 lated a negative dead space. This result is possibly due
to a mistiming of the sample-taking, since the mean
Dead of the curve was well over 1 HRT, while the variance
Run. No. space (eqn)
(Reactor No.) (%) Mean Variance N - I/var D/uL was similar to that found in other runs. Another
I (2) 1.22 1.0o30 0.1572 6.36 0.0860 explanation may be that the actual hydraulic resi-
2 (2) 7.25 0.9452 0.1635 6.12 0.0898 dence time for the run differed from the value of HRT
3 (3) -10.81 1.1324 0.1415 7.07 0.0766 used to calculate 0. This may occur if the actual
4 (2) 6.66 1.0047 0.1470 6.80 0.0799
5 (3) $.87 1.0140 0.1415 7.07 0.0766 volumetric flowrate varies from the set rate.
6 (I) 15.72 0.8428 0.1447 6.91 0.0785 The tanks-in-series model, based on the variance,
7 (2) 14.13 0.8588 0.1134 8.82- 0.0603
8 (I) 7.34 0.9800 0.1538 6.50 0.0840 indicated that Reactor 2 contained between 6.1 and
9 (2) 20.33 0.8052 0.1070 9.35 0.0567 6.8 perfectly stirred tanks (N), while Reactor 4
10 (I) 17.99 0.8514 0.1779 5.62 0.0987 contained 7.1. The correlation between the theoreti-
II (2) 21.82 0.7818 0.1668 6.00 0.0919
12 (3) 18.58 0.8142 0.0941 10.95 0.0780 cal value N and the actual number of compartments
13 (4) 1.21 1.0336 0.1439 6.95 0.0780 is discussed further below. Here it may be noted that
14 (3) 17.38 0.8632 0.1208 8.28 0.0646 the data showed that parameter N is greater for the
15 (4) 7.69 0.9658 0.1403 7.13 0.0759
16 (3) 5.4 0.9707 0.1217 8.22 0.0651 reactor with more compartments.
17 (3) 9.55 0.9298 0.1245 8.03 0.0667
(2) RTD studies with biomass in reactors
Runs 6-17 were performed with different biomass
Tanks-in-series model:
concentrations in the reactors, and at various hy-
I draulic residence times, while the reactors were at
o 2= - (6)
N "steady state". The results for Reactors 1 and 2
appear in runs 6-11 (Table 3). These runs were
Dispersion modeh
carried out after the reactors had been started up and
2D [ ~ [ ~ D 2 operated for some time, so that the biomass was
already granulated.
It can be seen that the concentration of biomass did
where
not vary greatly among runs 6-11. The fraction of
N= number of theoretical tanks in series dead space varied from 7 to 20%, averaging approx.
D- molecular diffusivity (cm2/s) 14% for Reactor l, and 19% for Reactor 2. This
u= average liquid velocity (cm/s) represents a significant increase from the average of
L- liquid pathlength through reactor (cm). 5% dead space found in Reactor 2 with no biomass
(runs 1, 2 and 4). It must be noted that the runs with
From the above equations it can be noted that the
biomass were carried out at longer HRTs, hence the
calculation of dead space is associated with the mean
increase could be due either to the presence of
of the curve, while the dispersion or back-mixing is
biomass or to the long residence times. No clear trend
associated with the variance.
emerges within either group of runs to correlate dead
space with HRT.
DISCUSSION The variance of the curve for the runs with
Reactor I (runs 6, 8 and 10) display a clear trend
(!) RTD studies with no biomass in reactors of increasing variance with decreasing HRT. This
Runs 1-5 were performed with no biomass in the trend indicates, as expected, a greater degree of back-
reactors, using fluorescein as the tracer. The sequence mixing (with higher D/uL) as flowrates increase.
of runs is in terms of decreasing hydraulic residence The theoretical number of stirred tanks, N, decreases
 Hydrodynamics of anaerobic bamed reactor
accordingly from 6.9 to 5.6. The trend for Reactor 2
is less clear but also decreasing, so that at 20 h
HRT (run ! !), N = 6. Compared to the runs with no
biomass in the reactor, where N averaged 6.4 for
Reactor 2 at low HRTs, this shows that the presence
of biomass and the resulting gas production make a
contribution to the back-mixing. At every HRT, the
value of N is greater for Reactor 2 (with 6 compart-
ments) than for Reactor 1 (with 4 compartments).
The third group of runs (12-17) was performed
with Reactors 3 and 4. The average dead space
calculated for Reactor 3 is 14%, with a trend towards
decreasing dead space with decreasing HRT. The
values for dead space calculated at 5 h HRT (runs 16
and i 7) are low in both reactors, of the same order
as those in the runs without biomass. This indicates
that at low HRT the presence of biomass does not
significantly increase the volume of dead space in the
reactors.
The variance calculated for this group of runs show
conflicting trends. For Reactor 3, the variance in-
creases with decreasing HRT, a result which was also
found for Reactors I and 2. However, Reactor 4
(runs 13, 15 and 17) appears to have a residence time
distribution the variance of which decreases with
decreasing HRT. The two reactors were similar apart
from the biomass concentration and the gas pro-
duction in each. Comparison of runs 12 and 13
suggests that lower biomass concentration implies
higher variance, while comparison of runs 14 and 15,
or of runs 12 and 16, suggests that higher gas
production implies higher variance. For runs 16 and
17, at an HRT of 5 h, the similar biomass concen-
trations and gas production rates yield a similar result
for the variance. In terms of the theoretical number
of stirred tanks, N is close to 8 for both reactors.
Finally, the three groups of runs may be broadly
compared by looking at the average value of the
mean. With no biomass in the reactors, the mean
residence time is close to i.0, as may be expected for
a system to plug flow, where the dead space is low.
The second group of runs, with biomass and running
at higher HRTs, has an average mean of 0.85,
indicating that a significant amount of channelling is
taking place. This was confirmed visually during the
course of the experiments. Correspondingly, the frac-
tion of dead space in the reactors is higher. In the
third group of runs, the mean averages 0.98 for
Reactor 4, and increases from 0.81 to 0.97 for
Reactor 3, as the HRT decreases from 20 to 5 h. It
is likely that the increased bacterial activity in terms
of gas production, as well as the increase in flow rate,
prevented channelling from taking place by keeping
the sludge beds partly fluidized, and thus decreased
the volume of dead space.
(3) Mixing patterns
If molecular diffusion were an important com-
ponent of longitudinal dispersion, we would expect to
see a decrease in the dispersion number (D/uL) with
375
a decrease in residence time. This effect would be
especially clear in the runs without biomass (see
Table 3, runs 1-5). However, no significant trend
emerges here for a given reactor, so we may conclude
that molecular diffusion does not significantly affect
the mixing patterns.
Another factor which must be taken into account
when considering longitudinal dispersion is the possi-
bility of adsorption of tracer onto the reactor walls or
onto the biomass. Previous studies encountered these
problems with chloride tracers (Choi and Burkhead,
1983). However, lithium was found to be a satisfac-
tory tracer by other workers (Tomlinson and
Chambers, 1979; Heertjes and van der Meer, 1978).
In the experiments reported here, mass balances
performed on the tracer showed between 95 and
103% agreement between the mass injected and the
mass detected in the effluent over time (by inte-
gration); tracer concentration in the effluent dropped
to zero at the end of each run. Hence we assume there
was no long-term hold-up of lithium by adsorption.
Temporary adsorption of lithium onto the biomass
cannot be ruled out since the effect would be masked
as dead space, but owing to the very low reactivity of
lithium this is unlikely.
Mixing patterns are analysed largely by observing
the variance of the C-curve, and fitting this infor-
mation into the tanks-in-series model and the dis-
persion model. Of the two, the tanks-in-series model
is the more useful, since the dispersion model merely
calculates the dispersion number, showing that the
type of flow in the ABR is "intermediate" between
plug-flow and perfectly mixed, tending towards the
latter. The average value for D/uL over 17 runs is
0.0752, with a standard deviation of 0.0128. Tomlin-
son and Chambers (1979) defined D/uL = 0.02 as an
"intermediate" degree of dispersion, and D/uL = 0.2
as "large". (An ideal perfectly mixed reactor would
show D/uL-~ oo, while ideal plug flow shows
D/uL = 0.) The data from these experiments shows a
significant negative correlation between D/uL (the
dependent variable), the actual number of compart-
ments in the reactor, and HRT, i.e. more compart-
ments and higher HRT are both linked to lower
dispersion.
This conclusion is shown graphically in Fig. 3,
where all three graphs show the decrease in D/uL
with increasing HRT. By comparing the reactors with
4, 6 and 8 compartments, it is also clear that D/uL
is lower with a larger number of compartments. This
indicates that increasing the number of compart-
ments brings the overall flow pattern closer to plug
flow.
The tanks-in-series model calculates a number, N,
of equal-sized ideal stirred tanks, where N is the
reciprocal of the variance of the C-curve. The volume
of each stirred tank is the total reactor volume
divided by N. There is a significant correlation be-
tween N and the number of actual compartments per
reactor, over all 17 runs (the calculated coefficient of
376 A. Ggomcrd and D. C. S r u ~

012 (A) gas-liquid interface carrying a biomass granule. On

0.10
reaching the interface, the gas bubble disengaged,
allowing the granule to drop back into the bed. These
--x observations support the conclusion that each com-
partment is well-mixed. However, the downcomer
|006
section of a given compartment may behave more fike
~ oo4 a plug-flow region, while the wider upcomer, where
most of the biomass is situated, is well-mixed. If there
e, 0 0 2
is severe channelling through the sludge bed, there
0 I I I I L J may be plug flow in these sections of the upcomer as
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 well. These hypotheses need to be demonstrated by
Hydraulic residence time(h)
residence time distribution studied over a single com-
O.12
partment, where samples are taken at the bottom of
- (B)
the downcomer, in the middle of the sludge bed and
--
-,4
0,10- at the top of the upcomer.
From the runs discussed here, we may conclude
~ 0.08
that the more baffles a reactor contains, the less
0.06 back-mixing will occur, but that each individual
¢
compartment will be well-mixed. The concept of the
0.04-

8
,~ O, O Z - (A)
I I I , 1 J I
~7
0
20 30 40 50 60
Hydraulic residence t i m e ( h |
70 80 "•
4.,
6

012 ~4
(C)
- 3
010 o

i 008
' x ~ x
i'
z
1

0 I I i I I I
0 06
20 30 40 SO 60 70 80

~ 004

002
10 (B}
Hydraulic residence time (h)

X - -
--x
0
4
I
6
I
8
I
10
I
12 14
!

Hydraulic residence time(h)

Fig. 3. Dispersion number vs HRT. Reactor I with bio-
I
16
I
18
I
20
~e
J
mass, 4 compartments. (B) Reactor 2 with biomass, 6 com-
4
partments. (C) Reactor 3 with biomass, 8 compartments.
_E2
correlation was tested for significance using Student's z
t-test). A multiple regression analysis, of the number 0 I 1 I I I I
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
of actual compartments and the HRT, on N gives an
Hydraulic restdenca t i m e ( h )
even better correlation. The lower the HRT, the
better N alone fits the number of actual compart-
lz (C)
ments. Including biomass concentration and gas pro-
S
duction in the multiple regression does not give -- 10

significant coefficients for these two variables, but it 8 :

-- 8
further improves the correlation (Fig. 4),
The physical interpretation of these findings is that ~6
the baffles inside the reactor inhibit back-mixing
4 --
between compartments, but that there is a large
degree of mixing within each compartment. Consid-
ering a single compartment as a three-phase system,
0 1 I I I I I I I
the movement of biomass granules and the release of 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 le 20
gas bubbles within the liquid stream cause additional Hydrauh¢ residence time(h)
mixing to occur. The movement of granules was
Fig. 4. Stirred tanks vs HRT. (A) Reactor I with biomass,
observed visually through the perspex walls of the 4 compartments. (B) Reactor 2 with biomass, 6 compart-
reactors. Gas bubbles frequently travelled up to the ments, (C) Reactor 3 with biomass, 8 compartments.
 Hydrodynamics of anaerobic baffled reactor
A B R as a series of stirred tanks, where the number
of stirred tanks corresponds to the number of
actual compartments, lends itself to mathematical
modelling, and also has implications for reactor
performance and stability.It allows us to assume that
the effluent from each compartment will have the
same concentrations of solutes as the bulk liquid in
that compartment. The hrger the number of com-
partments in a given reactor, the closer will the
overall flow pattern approach plug flow.
(4) Dead space
The first point to be noted about the calculated
values of dead space is that they are low by compari-
son with studies of other reactors. For example, a
similar study of hydrodynamic characteristics gives
values for dead space in an anaerobic filter of between
50 and 93% (Young and Young, 1988); and in
conventional digesters of CSTR design, dead space
has been found up to 82% of reactor volume
(Stuckey, 1983). The highest dead space value found
in this study is 22% of reactor volume. The mean
value for dead space over all the runs is 9.8%, with
a standard deviation of 8.2%.
Since the evaluation of dead space depends partly
on the mcan of the C-curve, we need to look more
closely at how that mean is determined. The value of
the mean is very sensitive to the accuracy of the
numerical integration performed: as noted in the
results, points on the curve were interpolated in a
linear fashion until the integration gave an error of
less than 0.001 on the value of the mean. However,
this linear interpolation may distort the curve. If
sampling were carried out at very short intervals over
the entire duration of the experiment, it would not be
necessary to interpolate points. An automatic
sampling device is required for this task.
The other major parameter affecting the calcu-
lation of dead space is the "tail" of the curve, i.e. the
portion of the curve that lies beyond 0 = 2. Again,
this is sensitive to the accuracy of the integration.
Dead space is a function of the product of the mean
of the curve and the area under the curve between
0 = 0 a n d 0 = 2 (i.e. the total area minus the "tail").
When the mean is close to 0 = I, the tail therefore
plays a large part in determining dead space.
In physical terms, dead space may be divided into
the categories of biological dead space and hydraulic
dead space (Choi and Burkhead, 1983; Young and
Young, 1988). Biological dead space is the volume
occupied by the biomass, together with the dead
space caused by the interference of biomass particles
in flow patterns (i.e. the stagnant liquid layer around
the particles). In the ABR, the highest biomass
concentration encountered during these studies was
8.5 g/l. At a biomass density of 1.024g/ml, only
0.83% of the total working volume inside the reactor
was taken up by biomass. The average dead space for
all the runs with biomass in the reactor was 13%.
Therefore, the role of biomass in interfering with flow
377
is more important than the actual volume of biomass,
especially at high residence times. The development
of channels through the sludge beds was observed
through the perspex walls of the reactor, and a large
proportion of the flow passed through these channels
until some disturbance occurred to rearrange the
biomass (such as a sudden drop or increase in flow
rate). At low residence time (below 20 h), the rapid
evolution of gas bubbles and the greater degree of
fluidization of the granules to a large extent prevented
the formation of channels through the bed. Hence, we
would expect biological dead space to be linked to the
phenomenon of channelling, and its effect to decrease
with decreasing HRT and increasing gas production.
The effect of channelling on the C-curve is to shift the
mean below 0 = 1.
Hydraulic dead space tends to occur beneath weirs
and in corners, where stagnant eddies form. These
eddies effectively act as reservoirs, into and out of
which tracer slowly diffuses. On the C-curve, this
appears as a smooth tail: the larger the hydraulic
dead space, the greater the area of the tail. Hydraulic
dead space has been shown to increase with increas-
ing Reynolds number (Young and Young, 1988), so
we may expect that this effect would become more
important at low HRT. Clearly, in the runs without
biomass (runs I-5) the dead space is all hydraulic
dead space. There is an insufficientnumber of runs to
show a statistically significant increase in dead space
as the HRT decreases, however, so the runs must be
examined individually to see if any conclusions may
be drawn.
In the case of runs i and 4, the mean is greater than
0 = 1, but very close to it, so that the dead space
calculated comes largely from the tail of the curve.
The dead space increases from I to 7%, while the
HRT decreases from 12 to 1 h. Run 2, at an HRT of
5 h, also shows a dead space of 7%, but in this case
some of the dead space is due to a shift in the mean.
These runs were all done on the 6-compartment
reactor (Reactor 2). Runs 3 and 5 were performed on
the 8-compartment reactor (Reactor 4). Both of these
runs have a mean substantially greater than !, hence
the dead space calculations are inaccurate, and no
comparison is possible with Reactor 2. The exper-
imental technique needs to be redefined to allow small
dead spaces to be accurately characterized.
Runs 6-17 were performed with biomass in the
reactors, so we expect that both biological and
hydraulic dead space contribute to the total dead
space. The downward shift in the mean confirms
channelling plays a much greater role than in the runs
without biomass. Although there is no statistically
significant linear relationship between dead space and
HRT, there is a negative correlation between dead
space and gas production. Tailing is not very severe
in any of the runs, even at low HRT. Hence we may
conclude that biological dead space is the major
contributor to dead space at high HRT, but its effect
decreases at lower HRT, largely because the increased
378 A. Gaomcra and D. C. Srucr~v
gas production at lower H R T (i.e. higher organic
loading) leads to the disruption of channelling.
Hydraulic dead space is a small but relatively con-
stant fraction of reactor volume which increases
slightly at low HRT.
Clearly, it is not possible to link biological dead
space directly with a shift in the mean of the C-curve,
and hydraulic dead space with an increase in tailing,
since the effects are necessarily shared between the
two phenomena. Biological dead space is also to
some extent a stagnant area which may act as a
reservoir for the tracer, hence contributing to tailing.
Conversely, hydraulic dead space is an area which the
flow lines pass by, which then increases the chan-
nelling and causes the mean to shift. Hence a numeri-
cal value cannot be derived from the C-curve, which
would give the exact contributions of biological and
hydraulic dead spaces to the total dead space. How-
ever, by examining the evidence from runs with
different levels of biomass concentration and different
HRT, it is possible to determine the importance of
these two effects for a given reactor type.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, it is apparent from these studies that
the ABR may be characterized as a series of well-
mixed CSTRs, with low dead space. There is very
little mixing between one compartment and the next,
due to the baffle arrangement. Hence the ABR may
be represented for the purposes of modelling as a
series of ideal stirred tanks, corresponding to the
number of actual compartments. The greater the
number of compartments, the closer the reactor will
approach plug flow. This characterization is more
accurate at low HRT (below 20 h) than at higher
HRT, largely because the increased gas production at
increased loading improves the mixing within each
compartment.
Values obtained for the fraction of reactor volume
that is dead space are low (averaging less than 10%
of reactor volume) in comparison with other reactor
designs. Dead space may be divided into two cat-
egnries, hydraulic and biological. Hydraulic dead
space, which is a function of flowrate and the number
of baffles, may broadly be said to increase with
decreasing HRT, and with more compartments in the
reactor. On the other hand, biological dead space,
which is a function of the biomass concentration, gas
production and flowrate, may be said to decrease
with decreasing HRT. These conflicting trends ex-
plain why there is no correlation to be found between
dead space and HRT.
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