ABSTRACT
The effect of the superficial liquid upflow velocity on the acidifying and sulfate reducing capacity of thermophilic (55 degrees C; pH 6.0) granular sludge bed reactors treating partly acidified wastewater was investigated. A comparison was made between a UASB and an EGSB reactor, operated at an upflow velocity of 1 m.h-1 and 6.8 m.h-1, respectively. Both reactors were inoculated with a mixture of mesophilic sulphidogenic, thermophilic sulphidogenic and thermophilic methanogenic sludge (ratio 2:1:1). They were fed a synthetic wastewater containing starch, sucrose, lactate, propionate and acetate and a low sulphate concentration (COD/SO4(2-) ratio of 10). At the end of the experiment, the sulphate level of the influent was slightly increased to a COD/SO4(2-) ratio of 8. The reactors were operated at a hydraulic retention time of about 5 h and the imposed volumetric organic loading rates (OLR) ranged from 4.9 to 40.0 g COD l-1d-1. When imposing an OLR of 40.0 g COD l-1d-1, the acidification efficiency dropped to 80% and the sulphate reduction efficiency decreased to 50% in the UASB reactor. In the EGSB reactor, the sulphate reduction efficiency dropped to 30% directly following the OLR increase to 40 g COD l-1d-1, but recovered rapidly to 100% (at an OLR of 35 g COD l-1d-1) until the end of the experiment. In the UASB reactor, there was a net acetate and propionate production. At the higher organic loading rates, propionate was converted to n-butyrate and n-valerate. These back reactions did not occur in the EGSB reactor, in which an active methanogenic population developed, leading to a net acetate removal (up to 50%) and a high gas loading rate (up to 8.5 l l-1d-1). In both reactors, the effluent sulphide concentration was always below 200 mg l-1, of which about 90% was present as undissociated H2S (under the given conditions--pH 5.8-6.1 and 55 degrees C). The biogas (including CH4 and CO2) production rates in the UASB were very low, i.e. < 31 biogas l-1 reactor d-1, resulting in negligible amounts (< 20%) of H2S stripped from the reactor liquid. In the EGSB reactor, the biogas production rates reached up to 8.5 l l-1d-1, resulting in H2S stripping efficiencies up to 75%.