Single-stage anaerobic treatment of high sulfate wastewater with oxygenation to control sulfide toxicity

Author(s):  
Samir Kumar Khanal
2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45
Author(s):  
J.-C. Huang ◽  
S. Kumar Khanal

In this study, a preset oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) was employed to regulate oxygen dosing for online sulfide toxicity control during anaerobic treatment of high sulfate wastewater. The experiment was conducted in an upflow anaerobic reactor (UAF), which was operated at a constant influent total organic carbon (TOC) of 6740 mg/L (equivalent to a chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 18000 mg/L) but with different influent sulfates of 1000, 3000 and 6000 mg/L. The reactor was initially run without oxygen injection at a natural ORP of about −290 to −300 mV and then was followed by oxygenation to raise ORP by +25 mV above the natural level for each influent sulfate level. With 1000 and 3000 mg/L influent sulfates, the produced sulfide levels did not impose any appreciable toxicity to methanogens even without oxygen injection. However, with 6000 mg/L influent sulfate without oxygen injections, the dissolved sulfide level quickly went up to over 800 mg/L which imposed a significant suppression on methanogenesis. Upon oxygen injection to raise the ORP by +25 mV, the dissolved sulfide was quickly reduced to 160 mg/L. If more oxygen was injected to raise the ORP by +50 mV, then dissolved sulfide further decreased to 12.2 mg/L with a concomitant improvement in methane yield by 45.9%. With a +25 mV preset ORP increase, it was found that at the 1000 mg/L influent sulfate the supplied oxygen was more than that needed for sulfide oxidation. The excess oxygen could be utilized readily by facultative heterotrophs for organic oxidation, which contributed 13.5% of the total COD removal in the UAF. At the higher sulfate levels of 3000 and 6000 mg/L, the facultative contributions to the total COD removal were only 4.7 and 4.1%, respectively. This study has clearly demonstrated that ORP is a workable and reliable means for regulating oxygen injection to achieve online sulfide toxicity control in a single-stage anaerobic system treating high sulfate wastewater.


1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 29-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Banks ◽  
P. N. Humphreys

The stability and operational performance of single stage digestion with and without liquor recycle and two stage digestion were assessed using a mixture of paper and wood as the digestion substrate. Attempts to maintain stable digestion in both single stage reactors were unsuccessful due to the inherently low natural buffering capacity exhibited; this resulted in a rapid souring of the reactor due to unbuffered volatile fatty acid (VFA) accumulation. The use of lime to control pH was unsatisfactory due to interference with the carbonate/bicarbonate equilibrium resulting in wide oscillations in the control parameter. The two stage system overcame the pH stability problems allowing stable operation for a period of 200 days without any requirement for pH control; this was attributed to the rapid flushing of VFA from the first stage reactor into the second stage, where efficient conversion to methane was established. Reactor performance was judged to be satisfactory with the breakdown of 53% of influent volatile solids. It was concluded that the reactor configuration of the two stage system offers the potential for the treatment of cellulosic wastes with a sub-optimal carbon to nitrogen ratio for conventional digestion.


2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 183-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.K. Khanal ◽  
C. Shang ◽  
J.-C. Huang

In this study, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) was used as a controlling parameter to regulate oxygen dosing to the recycled biogas for online sulfide oxidation in an upflow anaerobic filter (UAF) system. The UAF was operated with a constant influent COD of 18,000 mg/L, but with different influent sulfates of 1000, 3000 and 6000 mg/L. The reactor was initially operated under a natural ORP of -290 mV (without oxygen injection), and was then followed by oxygenation to raise its ORP by 25 mV above the natural level for each influent sulfate condition. At 6,000 mg/L sulfate without oxygen injection, the dissolved sulfide reached 733.8 mg S/L with a corresponding free sulfide of 250.3 mg S/L, thus showing a considerable inhibition to methanogens. Upon oxygenation to raise its ORP to -265 mV (i.e., a 25 mV increase), the dissolved sulfide was reduced by more than 98.5% with a concomitant 45.9% increase of the methane yield. Under lower influent sulfate levels of 1,000 and 3,000 mg/L, the levels of sulfides produced, even under the natural ORP, did not impose any noticeable toxicity to methanogens. Upon oxygenation to raise the ORP by +25 mV, the corresponding methane yields were actually reduced by 15.5% and 6.2%, respectively. However, such reductions were not due to the adverse impact of the elevated ORP; instead, they were due to a diversion of some organic carbon to support the facultative activities inside the reactor as a result of excessive oxygenation. In other words, to achieve satisfactory sulfide oxidation for the lower influent sulfate conditions, it was not necessary to raise the ORP by as much as +25 mV. The ORP increase actually needed depended on both the influent sulfate and also actual wastewater characteristics. This study had proved that the ORP controlled oxygenation was reliable for achieving consistent online sulfide control.


2014 ◽  
Vol 955-959 ◽  
pp. 2083-2086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhong Bing Chen ◽  
Uwe Kappelmeyer ◽  
Peter Kuschk

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are shown to be suitable for the treatment of water contaminated with benzene. However, due to the high sulfate concentration (around 850 mg/L) in influent, sulfate reduction will be stimulated in CWs. Subsequently, the toxicity of sulfide will be a catastrophe to the plants, and the treatment performance of CWs will be impaired. In this study, nitrite and nitrate were used as competitor with sulfate for electron acceptor to prevent the sulfate reduction. With the inflow benzene concentration ranged from 21.6-103 μg, and the accumulation of sulfide reached up to 39%, the removal efficiency of benzene decreased from 86% to 27%. However, with the addition of nitrite and nitrate, the sulfide accumulation was inhibited successfully, and the benzene removal efficiency recovered to 85%. In conclusion, both nitrite and nitrate can be an option for preventing sulfate reduction and sulfide toxicity in CWs treating sulfate-rich wastewater.


2020 ◽  
Vol 301 ◽  
pp. 122711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda R. Oliveira ◽  
K.C. Surendra ◽  
Deb P. Jaisi ◽  
Hui Lu ◽  
Gulcin Unal-Tosun ◽  
...  

1986 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan A. Oleszkiewicz ◽  
Barry L. Hilton

Six parallel upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactors were operated at chemical oxygen demand (COD) loads from 3 to 10 kg COD/(m3∙d). Four reactors (R1–R4) were fed sodium sulfate at loads of 1–3 kg S-SO4/(m3∙d). Reactors R1 and R2 were fed spent cheese whey with R1 being operated in an unstripped and R2 in a stripped mode. At COD loads below 5 kg/(m3∙d), the removal in R1 was 60–80% COD and generally trailed R2 by a margin of 0–15%. At higher COD loads and at higher SO4/COD ratios, the performance of R1 deteriorated significantly. A similar situation was found in the pair R3 (unstripped) and R4 (stripped), which was fed a mixture of spent whey and sulfite cooking liquor. Reactors R5 and R6 were subjected to the same feed as R3 and R4, but no sulfate was added. A comparison of R4 with R6 indicated slightly lower COD removal in R4 with similar amounts of volatile fatty acids accumulating in both reactors in cases of overloading. Key words: anaerobic treatment, sulfides, methanogenesis, inhibition, sludge bed reactor, dairy wastes, pulp and paper wastes, sulfate reduction.


2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (9) ◽  
pp. 1966-1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. T. Mota ◽  
M. Zaiat

Abstract Two- and single-stage anaerobic treatment systems were assessed for treatment performance and for bioenergy production from sucrose-based wastewater. In the two-stage system, a hydrogen-producing upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (HU reactor) was used in the acidogenic phase. The methanogenic reactor of the two-stage system (MF reactor) and the single-stage reactor (SSF reactor) were structured fixed-bed reactors. The two-stage system showed superior performance, evidenced by lower organic acids, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and suspended solids concentrations in the effluent, and higher biogas methane content and yield. Continuous and stable H2 production was obtained in the acidogenic reactor. At the end of operation, the organic loading rates applied to the two- and single-stage systems were 6.4 and 5.2 gCOD L−1 d−1, respectively. Under these conditions, the effluent soluble COD and volatile suspended solids (VSS) concentrations were 165 and 92 mg L−1 in the two-stage system, and 256 and 244 mg L−1 in the single-stage system, respectively. The energy yield of the two-stage system was 20.69 kJ g−1CODadded, which was 34% higher than the yield of the single-stage system. The sequencing analyses showed that the archaeal distribution changed little between the inoculum and sludge from the MF reactor, in which acetoclastic Methanosaeta was predominant. However, hydrogenotrophic Methanospirillum was found most, followed by Methanosaeta, in the sludge from the SSF reactor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Vital-Jacome ◽  
M. Cazares-Granillo ◽  
J. Carrillo-Reyes ◽  
G. Buitron

Abstract Wine production has increased in recent years, especially in developing countries such as Mexico. This increase is followed by an increase of winery effluents that must be treated to avoid environmental risks. However, little information is available about the characteristics of these effluents and the possible treatments. This paper aimed to characterize the effluents and by-products generated by the Mexican winery industry and to evaluate the performance and stability of the anaerobic treatment using a single-stage and a two-stage process. Results showed that the winery effluents had a high content of biodegradable organic matter, with chemical oxygen demand (COD) values ranging from 221 to 436 g COD/L. The single-stage anaerobic process was able to treat an organic loading rate of 9.6 kg COD/(m3 d); however, it was unstable and highly dependent on the addition of bicarbonate alkalinity (0.31 g NaHCO3/g COD removed). The two-stage process was more stable working at a higher organic load (12.1 kg COD/(m3 d)) and was less dependent on the addition of bicarbonate (0.17 g NaHCO3/g COD removed). The results highlight the potential of the winery effluents to produce methane through anaerobic digestion in a two-stage process, making wine production more sustainable.


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