Anaerobic Baffled Reactor: A promising wastewater treatment technology in tropical countries

With the deterioration of the water resources of the world, looking for an economically viable solution to treat wastewater is a challenge, especially in developing countries, where the costs of setting up, operation and maintenance of conventional aerobic treatment plants are difficult to be met with. The various advantages of the anaerobic treatment technologies over the existing aerobic treatment technologies are lower energy requirements, lesser excess sludge production and energy production in the form of biogas. The only major disadvantage for anaerobic treatment is the requirement of relatively higher temperatures for optimum operation, but this is not a barrier in tropical countries like India, hence making high rate anaerobic reactors a reliable technology in countries like India. Anaerobic reactors have an advantage of maintaining high biomass concentration and maintaining longer SRTs (Sludge Retention Time) at shorter HRTs (Hydraulic Retention Time). ABR (Anaerobic Baffled Reactor) is one of the simplest anaerobic reactors, which has been widely studied as a potential reactor for decentralised wastewater treatment in developing tropical countries, because it provides higher treatment efficiencies at lower costs.