FEASIBILITY STUDY ON THE OPERATION OF UASB REACTOR TREATING ACIDIFIED FOOD WASTE

ABSTRACT

A mesophilic upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor seeded with granules adapted to VFA wastewater was operated as the methanogenic phase of a two-phase anaerobic batch process for food waste digestion. A semi-liquid recycle reactor filled with food waste was used as the acidification reactor and first recirculated for 8 days in the pre-acidification stage, resulting in 14,500 mg/L of total VFA and 15,800 mg/L of COD in the leachate. During the subsequent 8 days of two-phase operation, the leachate was circulated to the UASB reactor. In methanogenic phase, biogas with methane content of 68% on average was generated, and COD and total VFA removals were 74–93% and 77–99%, respectively. At the end of two-phase process, 65% of volatile solids removal and 0.30 L/gVS of methane yield were obtained. The results of this laboratory-scale study show that an UASB system can be used as the methanogenic phase in a two-phase anaerobic batch process, and is effective for conversion of the acidified food waste.

Keywords:

• Anaerobic digestion
• Food waste
• Methanogenesis
• Pre-acidification
• Two-phase process
• UASB

Acknowledgments