ABSTRACT
In April of 1985, Abbott initiated a project to evaluate expansion alternatives for its wastewater treatment system. The criteria established for ranking the alternatives were as follows: to provide treatment capacity for growth and expansion of fermentation operations; to improve stability and quality of effluent discharges to the municipal wastewater treatment plant North Shore Sanitary District; and to reduce operating cost for sludge disposal and chemical usage effluent solids control. From the "desktop" analysis the anaerobic treatment technology was a clear winner, when measured against the objectives defined. However, there was a question regarding the technical feasibility of utilizing the anaerobic technology for the treatment of complex waste streams from the pharmaceutical manufacturing operation. The low-rate anaerobic reactor design selected has five major components: tank; influent distribution and effluent collection systems; sludge recycle and wasting systems; floating membrane covers; and biogas collection and utilization system.
