Hydrodynamic behavior of a lab-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) operated with an adopted hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 12 hours

Abstract

The present research was carried out in the Laboratory of Water Analysis at the Engineering Department at Federal University of Lavras (LWAED-UFLA), in order to evaluate the hydrodynamic behavior of a lab-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) that was continuously fed with liquid effluent from swine manure with solid separation over 2mm. The hydrodynamic parameters were determined by a tracer study, under hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 12 hours, using Lithium Chloride (LiCl) as a tracer. The system was monitored periodically through physical analysis of samples collected at UASB, during the steady-state operational conditions. The physical-chemical analyses were accomplished using a flame photometry. The operational average temperature in the UASB reactor was 23.9ºC .The UASB hydrodynamic parameters determined were: average residence time (<img src="/img/revistas/cagro/v33n4/t4_barra.gif" align="absmiddle">) of 38.3 h, number of dispersion d= 0.27, and the flow type was characterized as dispersed flow of great intensity. This research is of great importance due to the fact that the scaling-up of biological reactors is based on the hydrodynamic behavior, through which the bacterial kinetic is directly influenced, as reported by Saleh (2004).