ABSTRACT
Chapters 5, 6, and 7 considered aerobic/anoxic systems or systems in which an anaerobic reactor was provided in series with aerobic and/or anoxic reactors to provide an environment conducive to the selection of phosphate accumulating organisms. Strictly anaerobic bioreactors, on the other hand, have played an important role in wastewater treatment systems for the stabilization of particulate substrates, such as primary and secondary sludges, for the treatment of high strength soluble wastewaters, and for the production of acetate and other volatile fatty acids (VFAs) required in biological phosphorus removal (BPR) systems. Because distinct microbial communities are developed in strictly anaerobic systems and because of the important roles that they play in wastewater treatment we will consider them in this chapter. Fortunately, the recent development of the Anaerobic Digestion Model (ADM) No. 1 by a task group of the International Water Association (IWA)4,5 allows us to do so quantitatively and to examine the performance of a simple anaerobic continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) through simulation.
