Two examples of anaerobic pre-treatment of wastewater in the beverage industry

Two examples of full scale UASB-reactors in a fruit juice factory and a brewery are given. In both cases, the design was based on semi-technical tests. Although the wastewater concentrations are rather similar and move within a low range, the parts of the anaerobic treatment plants and their design are different. In both cases, the COD removal efficiency in the UASB-reactors is consistently above 80%. It becomes apparent that UASB-reactors are very suitable for industries with seasonal load variations. The co-fermentation of a kieselguhre-sludge-mixture was tested in lab-scale experiments. It became obvious that the pellet structure of the biomass gets lost. Furthermore, it is shown that the running expenses of anaerobic pre-treatment are very low, even when combined with an aerobic stage. (C) 1997 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.