Influence of the liquid-phase mass transfer on the performance of a packed-bed bioreactor for wastewater treatment

This paper reports on the influence of the liquid-phase mass transfer on the performance of a horizontal-flow, anaerobic, immobilized-biomass (HAIB) reactor treating low-strength wastewater. The HAIB reactor was subjected to liquid superficial velocities (upsilon (s)) ranging from 10 to 50 cm h(-1), corresponding to hydraulic detention time (theta (h)) of 10-2 h. The best performance was achieved at an overall theta (h) of 3.3 h due to the interdependence of biochemical reactions and mass transfer mechanisms for process optimization. The HAIB reactor was provided with four intermediate sampling ports, and the values of upsilon (s) were fixed to permit sampling at different ports corresponding to theta (h) of 2 h as upsilon (s) increased. The chemical oxygen demand removal (COD) efficiencies increased from 68% to 82% with the increase of upsilon (s) from 10 to 50 cm h(-1). It could be concluded that the performance of the HAIB reactor was improved significantly by increasing upsilon (s), thus decreasing the liquid-phase mass transfer resistance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.