Treatability Studies on Hybrid Up - Flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor for Pulp and Paper Mill Wastewater

In India, Pulp & paper industries have been large uses of portable water and consequently large generator of waste water. Anaerobic treatment of paper processing waste water has a distinct advantage of recovery of inherent energy in the form of methane gas with much less sludge production. A hybrid reactor that capitalizes on the positive features of anaerobic filter(AF) and up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB). The main objective of this thesis is to find out the start up of the hybrid up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (HUASB) reactor for treatment of pulp & paper mill waste water. The study was conducted using Lab-scale HUASB reactor of volume 4.3Lit at ambient temperature with packing materials in the top one third of the reactor. The reactor was made of PVC material with internal diameter of 9.5cm and height of 61cm. The reactor was initially filled with 2Lit of cow dung. Remaining volume is filled with seed sludge and paper mill waste water at the ratio of 1:2, with a low organic loading rate (OLR) of 1 kg COD/m3.d and 24 hours hydraulic retention time (HRT).The initial characteristics of the paper mill waste water were studied. Reactor was designed and fabricated. Start-up was done and waiting for the steady state condition to be reached. Further study on different loading by reducing HRT will be done after obtaining the steady state.