A Preliminary Study of Piggery Waste Treatment by an Upflow Sludge Bed Anaerobic Reactor and a Packed Bed Anaerobic Reactor

• Published in: Journal of agricultural engineering research 1995-10, Vol.62 (2), p.71-76
• Main Authors: Sánchez, E.P., Monroy, O., Cañizares, R.O., Travieso, L., Ramos, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural machinery and engineering; Agriculture, rearing and food industries wastes; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Animal productions; Applied sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Generalities. Biometrics, experimentation. Remote sensing; Pollution; Terrestrial animal productions; Vertebrates; Wastes
• ISSN: 0021-8634; 1095-9246
• DOI: 10.1006/jaer.1995.1065

Piggery waste is one of the most important sources of environmental pollution in Cuba and Mexico. Anaerobic digestion by high rate processes such as the upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) and the anaerobic packed bed (APB) is a possible treatment for this waste to reduce the pollution potential. Both processes were studied using laboratory scale models under the same range of organic volumetric loadings. The high efficiency of the UASB and the APB was demonstrated. However, the APB showed better performance under changes of organic loadings than the UASB. COD removals in the range of 85 to 65% were obtained in the APB while in the UASB values of 80 to 58% were obtained at organic loading rates in the range of 1·3 to 11·0kg COD/m 3 reactor d. In consequence, methane yield was slightly higher in the APB (0·4 to 2·0 m 3/m 3 reactor d) than in the UASB (0·4 to 1·7 m 3/m 3 reactor d).