Anaerobic Digestion in a Tapered Fluidized Bed Reactor: Characterization of Mesoporous Activated Carbon, Start Up, Optimization of Reactor, Kinetics and Neural Network Modeling

The availability of potable water is receding due to the discharge wastewater from industrial sector. Purification and recycling of wastewater have been made mandatory. Anaerobic technology is the most versatile option for treating high-strength organic wastewater. The book describes the treatment of synthetic starch containing wastewater of high COD in an anaerobic tapered fluidized bed bioreactor which reduced the wash out of the biomass. Mesoporous Activated Carbon (MAC) was used as a carrier matrix to improve the efficiency through insitu immobilization of anaerobic bacteria and caused internal micro agitation due to entrapped gases. The effect of parameters viz., temperature, pH, BOD, COD, biogas, total VFA and its composition, alkalinity, ORP, bed height and superficial velocities on the performance of the reactor is discussed. The COD removal efficiency is 92% in the reactor. The book includes preparation and characterization of MAC, optimization of the reactor and kinetic study for different start-up under transient conditions. Further a mathematical model for the prediction of the output values using different neural network techniques is developed.