Studies investigating the feasibility of new, or improved, biotechnologies, such as wastewater treatment digesters, inevitably start with laboratory-scale trials. However, it is rarely determined whether laboratory-scale results reflect full-scale performance or microbial ecology. The Expanded Granular Sludge Bed (EGSB) bioreactor, which is a high-rate anaerobic digester configuration, was used...

Anaerobic treatment of municipal wastewater offers the prospect of a new paradigm by reducing aeration costs and minimizing sludge production. It has been successfully applied in warm climates, but does not always achieve the desired outcomes in temperate climates at the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) values of municipal crude wastewater. Recently the concept of 'fortification' has been propos...

The wastewater treatment with a two-phase expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) system for anaerobic degradation of acetate, benzoate, terephtalate and p-toluate from purified terephtalic acid (PTA) production was studied. The feasibility and effectiveness of the system was evaluated in terms of organic oxidation by chemical oxygen demand (COD), gas production, bacterial adaptability and stabilit...

Large volumes of untreated palm oil mill effluent (POME) pose threat to aquatic environment due to the presence of very high organic content. The present investigation involved two pilot-scale anaerobic expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactors, continuously operated for 1 year to treat POME. Setting HRT at 9.8 d, the anaerobic EGSB reactors reduced COD from 71179 mg/L to 12341 mg/L and recy...

The treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater (PSW) with an Expanded Granular Sludge-Bed Bioreactor (EGSB) is hindered by the washout activated sludge, and difficulties associated operation three-phase separator determination optimum up-flow velocity for sludge-bed fluidization. This results in a poor reactor functionality, thus performance due to pollutants such as fats, oil grease (FOG) ...

The performance of an EGSB (expanded granular sludge bed) reactor type using flocculent sludge was evaluated for the post-treatment of effluent from UASB reactor treating domestic sewage. A pilot-scale 157.5-L EGSB reactor was monitored during a 331-day period. The original concept of the EGSB reactor was based on the granular sludge use and by applying high upflow liquid velocities (vup). Howe...

One of the research areas is the agricultural use of treated wastewaters, because it represents a unique opportunity to solve the problem of water supply for irrigation and at the same time the disposal of treated water. Anaerobic digestion appears as an interesting alternative, since anaerobically treated wastewaters can be used for irrigation purposes. These considerations are applied to the ...

Anaerobic biological wastewater treatment has numerous advantages over conventional aerobic processes; anaerobic biotechnologies, however, still have a reputation for low-quality effluents and operational instabilities. In this study, anaerobic bioreactors were augmented with an oxygen-transferring membrane to improve treatment performance. Two anaerobic bioreactors were fed a synthetic high-st...