Anaerobic

Sludge Blanket Process

Unit Operation and Process for Environmental
Engineering II

1 Sucheela Polruang
 Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Process
-
คน
! Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket or UASB
ไ มาก ไ อย เ น ป

ไ ใ ไป
ไ
ควร

2 Sucheela Polruang
Source: http://procesosbio.wikispaces.com/Deflectores
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 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB Vs
Upflow
ไป shdge ห ด _
, มาก
efflwenf
Fpea
! Influent wastewater is distributed at the bottom of the UASB
reactor and travels in an upflow mode through the sludge blanket
o sss e

กษณะ
! Formation of granulated sludge in the reactor is desirable
เ ด/ ฝน ตก ตะกอน โวย

! Granulated sludge particles have size ranges between 1.0 and 3.0
mm
มาก ! results in excellent sludge-thickening properties with SVI values
less than 20 mg/l slndge bed

! High efficiency in BOD removal, compared with other anaerobic

treatment
3 Sucheela Polruang
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ญํ๊ดี
ก้
ม็
ลุ
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Large granulated sludge particles are in the lower zone, while smaller
granulated sludge particles are in the upper zone of the sludge blanket

! Generally, during the treatment of UASB reactor, the substrate passes

through an expanded sludge bed which containing a high
concentration of biomass first. After that, the remaining part of
substrate passes through a less dense biomass which named
the sludge blanket.

! At the lower zone (sludge bed, where large sludge particles are
located) the solid concentration is about 50 - 100 g/l
""
! At the lower zone of sludge blanket (small sludge particles) the solid
concentration is about 5 - 40 g/l
4 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! The influent is pumped to the UASB reactor from bottom of it by
Peristaltic pump. The influent move upwards and get contact with the
biomass in sludge bed, then continue to move upwards and the rest
substrates act with the biomass again in the sludge blanket which has a
less concentration of biomass compared with the sludge bed below.

! The volume of sludge blanket must be sufficient to conduct the further

treatment to wastewater by-passed from the lower layer of sludge bed by
channeling. At the same time, it will help to ensure a stable effluent
quality. A 3 phases (Gas-Liquid-Solid) separator (so called GLSS) located
above the sludge blanket to separate the solid particles from the mixture
(gas, liquid, and solid) after treatment and hence allowing liquid and gas
to leave the UASB reactor.

5 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
* ไใ ใน มชน มา
! Critical elements of the UASB reactor are:
! GLSS (Gas-Liquid-Solid Separator) to separate produced biogas, treated
effluent and solids (sludge)
! Influent distribution system กระจาย ไ ทาน เ อ ใ เ ด การ รถ

! Effluent withdrawal system m slndge ปนไป วย ไ

! GLSS (Gas-Liquid-Solid Separator) is a device to separate biogas and

prevents washout of solids

! GLSS is designed to place top of the reactor

! Biogas is collected, while solids slide back into the sludge blanket
zone.
6
Sucheela Polruang
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 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Wastewater containing proteins and/or fats tend to cause foaming or
scums, which can adversely affect the sludge granulation

! High fraction of solids in wastewater can inhibit the formation of dense

granulated sludge

! High fraction of TSS in wastewater can inhibit the formation of dense

granulated sludge as well as sludge settling ability

! pH should be about 7.0

! In the start-up phase: COD: N: P should be 300:5:1 and for regular

operation it can be reduced to COD: N: P = 600:5:1

7 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB

Schematic of UASB
a) original UASB Process
b) UASB with sedimentation tank and sludge recycle
c) UASB with internal packing for fixed film attached growth
8
Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB

www.iwapublishing.com
9 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Function and Application (87% of industrial applications)
(Source: www.iwapublishing.com)
! Breweries and beverage industry
! Distilleries and fermentation industry
! Food Industry
! Pulp and paper
! Other industrial applications
! treatment of chemical and petrochemical industry effluents
! textile industry wastewater
! landfill leachates

10 Sucheela Polruang
 Advantage and disadvantage of UASB compared
with anaerobic suspended growth processes

! Advantage of UASB
! Low construction cost per kg COD removal
! Wastewater with high COD loading can be treated efficiently
! High quality of wastewater effluent can be achieved because biomass can
be maintained in the system (maintaining of sludge in the reactor is always
a problem in anaerobic processes)

! Disadvantage of UASB
! Not a suitable treatment process for wastewater with high solid content
due to inhibition of granulated sludge formation
! Granulation problems of sludge
! Several months may be required to develop the granulated sludge, hence sludge
seeds from other UASB reactors have to be imported to accelerate the system
11 start-up.
Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Design Consideration for UASB Process
! Wastewater Characteristic
! Volumetric organic loading
! Upflow velocity
! Reactor volume
! Physical features including the influent distribution system
! Gas collection system

12 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Wastewater Characteristic
! Wastewater containing proteins and/or fats tend to cause foaming
or scums, which can adversely affect the sludge granulation

! High fraction of solids in wastewater can inhibit the formation of

dense granulated sludge

! Generally, wastewater with solid concentration greater than 6 g

TSS/l should be treated in an anaerobic digestion =
(completely
-

mixed) or using an anaerobic contact process

_

13 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Volumetric organic loading
! For high COD removal efficiency (COD removal 90 – 95%)
71 เรอะ

! Either moderate volumetric loading and relative low upflow velocity

are required 1 %:P

! If high volatile fatty acid (VFA) present in wastewater

oee

! high volumetric loading can be treated properly. VFA can support granule
sludge forming.
! volatile fatty acid (VFA) is fatty acid with a carbon chain of C ≤ 6
าอOไr
nggftngg

! are easily consumed/ used by microorganisms

! can be used to produced methane (CH4)
! examples: acitic acid, propionic acid, butaric acid

14 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Volumetric organic loading

Recommended volumetric organic loading as a function of temperature for sCOD substrates for
85 – 95 % COD removal. Average sludge concentration is 25 g/l
Sucheela Polruang
(adapted from Lettinga and Hulshoff Pol (1991)
15
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Upflow Velocity
แฟน
ts

ง
มาก เบ จะ มาก

Upflow velocities and reactor heights recommended for UASB reactors

16 Sucheela Polruang
ต่
กิ
ก็
ก็
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 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Upflow Velocity (cont.)
! Wastewater with relatively low COD loading:
! The UASB volume will be determined by the allowable velocity and
reactor height

! Wastewater with relatively low COD loading:

! The UASB volume will be determined by COD loading

17 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Reactor Volume and Dimensions
! The total reactor height (HT) is equal to the height of liquid volume
(HL) and the height of the gas collector and gas storage (HG)

HT = HL + HG

Where
HL = VL/A

! VL = total liquid reactor volume [m³]

! A = cross section area [m²]

18 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Physical features
ปกร
Including feed inlet, gas separation, gas collection, and effluent
withdrawal
! Feed inlet must be designed to provide uniform distribution, to
avoid channeling, to avoid dead zones ใ กระจายไ มา ง เ า
ๆ
อง น ลม ไหล านไ เ าก ไและ แ ง
กา
. . จะ
กาง
! A number of inlet feed pipes are used to direct flow to different
areas of the bottom of the UASB reactor from a common feed
source. Access points should be provided for cleaning to prevent
clogging

19 Sucheela Polruang
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ดี
ท่
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กั
ณ์
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB

ไกรทอง

คอย ความสะอาด

20
Sucheela Polruang
ทำ
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! UASB Design Considerations for the gas liquid solid separators
(GLSS) for UASB Reactors

! The shape of the settler bottom, i.e., the inclined wall of the gas
i
collector, should be between 45 and 60°
! The surface area of the apertures between the gas collectors should
not be smaller than 15 – 20 % of the total reactor surface area
! The height of the gas collector should be between 1.5 and 5 m at
reactor heights of 5 – 7 m
! A liquid-gas interface should be maintained in the gas collector to
facilitate the release and collection of gas bubbles and to control scum
layer formation
! The overlap of the baffles installed beneath the apertures should be
100 – 200 mm to avoid upward-flowing gas bubbles entering the
settler compartment

21 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! UASB Design Considerations for the gas liquid solid
separators (GLSS) for UASB Reactors (cont.)

! Generally scum layer baffles should be installed in front of the

-

effluent weirs
! The diameter of the gas exhaust pipes should be sufficient to
guarantee the easy removal of the biogas from the gas collection
cap, particulary in the case where foaming occurs
! In the upper partof the gas cap, antifoam spray nozzles should
-

be installed in the case where the treatment of the wastewater is

accompanied by heavy foaming
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Sucheela Polruang ส าง
การ
Scum
22
ร้
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
Biogas Effluent overflow

Gas collector

Baffle

Granulated sludge

Biogas

Sludge blanket

Influent
23
Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! Design considerations and performance of UASB
process

Parameter Values
Organic loading rate 0.5 – 60 kg COD/m³/day
Temperature 30-35 °C
Hydraulic Retention Time τ 4 hr – 2 days
Wastewater flowrate per reactor surface area 1.5 m³ /m²/h
Biomass concentration 20 – 60 kg TS/m³

24 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
Hydraulic Retention Time τ for treatment of raw communal
wastewater in a 4-m-high UASB reactor

Temperature Hydraulic Retention Time maximum τ for 4 – 6 h -peak

_

(oC) τ (h) (h)

16 – 19 10 – 14 7–9
22 – 26 7–9 5–7
> 26 6–8 4–5

25 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
! General design considerations for municipal sewage:

! UASB are considered where temperature in the reactors > 20°C

! At equilibrium condition: sludge withdrawal = sludge produced
daily.
! Assumption:
! Yield = 0.1 g VSS/ g BOD removed
! 40 % of VSS in the influent are degraded, 60% are residue
! At steady state condition:
! SRT = (total sludge present in reactor) / (sludge withdrawal daily)
= 30 – 50 days
! HRT = V/Q = 8 – 10 hr (at average flow)

26 Sucheela Polruang
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB
c.
ด น
มชน →

For municipal sewage (Source: www.iitm.ac.in)

27 Sucheela Polruang
ชุ
นั้
นำบั
 Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket:
UASB For municipal sewage (Source: www.iitm.ac.in)

28 Sucheela Polruang
 Expanded Granular Sludge Blanket
EGSB

Sucheela Polruang

29 Source: INTERNAL CIRCULATION REACTOR: PUSHING THE LIMITS OF ANAEROBIC INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS
TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES by David Tshilumba Mutombo
 Expanded Granular Sludge Blanket
EGSB
! EGSB reactors are defined as vertically stretched versions of UASB reactors .
! UASB reactors are commonly built of 4.5 to 6.5 m while EGSB are 12-16meters tall.
Hence, EGSB reactor as a modification of the UASB reactor in which the granules are
partially fluidized by effluent recycle at a liquid upflow velocity of 5 to 6 m.
! The EGSB reactor shows improved mass transfer characteristics over the UASB reactor.
! EGSB is generally applied in situations where the volumetric gas production rate is low
and mixing in a USAB reactor by up flow velocity alone (0.5 to 2 m/hr) is insufficient.
! The overall performance of an EGSB is better than the UASB .
! To summarize them the EGSB reactor offers a smaller footprint, higher mixing due to
the higher upflow velocity and consequently an improved mass transfer and biomass
activity than the UASB reactor.
! As a derivative of the UASB, it responds to the need of small and medium sized
industries.

30 Sucheela Polruang
 Expanded Granular Sludge Blanket
EGSB

Typical reactors’ loading rates

Source: INTERNAL CIRCULATION REACTOR: PUSHING THE LIMITS OF ANAEROBIC INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS
TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES by David Tshilumba Mutombo
31 Sucheela Polruang
 Reference
These following 3 text books are used as core references for the
this course:
! “Wastewater Engineering: Treatment, Disposal and Reuse” by
Tchobanoglous, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill Book, 2004
! “Unit Operations and Processes in Environmental
Engineering” by Tom D. Reynolds and Paul A. Richards, PWS
Publishing Company, 2nd Edition, 1996
! “เทคโนโลยีนาํ1 เสีย” รศ. สุเทพ สิริวท
ิ ยาปกรณ์. เรียบเรียงครั1งที" 2. 2551

32 Sucheela Polruang