ABSTRACT
The key to maintaining process control and stable operations in anaerobic biological treatment systems is to provide proper environmental conditions to the biomass or bacteria in the system. Imperative for successful design and operation of anaerobic systems is matching of the number of microorganisms in the system to the organic substrate loading rate to the system, or controlling the food/microorganism ratio. This chapter develops accurate biological kinetic analysis procedures for anaerobic systems that allows comparisons of wastewater treatability characteristics whether in full-scale or pilot treatment systems. An upflow, bench-scale, fixed-film anaerobic reactor was operated for a period of two years to obtain the information needed to evaluate its performance treating high strength fuel alcohol thin stillage and to develop biological kinetic relationships at two different temperatures of 36 ± 2°C and 25° ± 2°C. The gas and methane production characteristics of the reactor at 25°C can be analyzed by monomolecular kinetics in terms of Biochemical and Chemical Oxygen Demand.
