ABSTRACT
Kanpur city located on the banks of River Ganga is expected to generate 355 MLD municipal wastewater by the year 2020. The 25 km stretch of the river along the city has been identified as the most polluted reach due to discharge of untreated domestic and industrial wastes under a national “Ganga Action Plan” of management of river water quality. The city has a cluster of about 150 tanneries on the south bank of the river discharging a total of 5.8 MLD wastewater. Under the action plan it is proposed to intercept the waste from the tanneries by an industrial sewer and take it to a common treatment facility where it may be mixed with 130 MLD municipal wastewater and treated through a proposed conventional treatment plant or treated separately after suitable dilution by an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor. The present paper describes laboratory studies conducted to assess the anaerobic treatability of the waste using a bench scale 3.2 L reactor, which paralleled the construction and operation of a 10 m3 UASB pilot plant.
