Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Wastewater (MWW) in a Periodic Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (PABR)

The scope of this work is to study the treatment of municipal wastewater in a Periodic Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (PABR). PABR is an innovative, high-rate bioreactor, designed to operate under high organic loadings. Apart from the Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) an important operational parameter is the Switching Period (T). The current research work aims to study the impact of the operational parameters variation (HRT and T) in the biogas and biomethane productivity. Six distinct experimental phases were conducted, during which the operational parameters of the PABR were consecutively modified: HRT varied from 10 to 1 day, T between 2.5 and 0.25 days while the OLR remained constant at values near 1 gsCOD/Lbioreactor*d. The maximum CH4 productivity was 26.5 LCH4/d corresponding to the operation under HRT=1d, OLR=0.89 gsCOD/Lbioreactor*d and T=0.25 days. Conclusively, the PABR is a high-rate AD system, capable of treating MWW under extreme operational conditions.