Biofuel Research Journal (Dec 2017)

Anaerobic treatment of agro-industrial wastewaters for COD removal in expanded granular sludge bed bioreactor

  • Abumalé Cruz-Salomón,
  • Edna Ríos-Valdovinos,
  • Francisco Pola-Albores,
  • Rocío Meza-Gordillo,
  • Selene Lagunas-Rivera,
  • Víctor M. Ruíz-Valdiviezo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.18331/BRJ2017.4.4.3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 4
pp. 715 – 720

Abstract

Read online

Untreated agro-industrial wastewaters are undesirable in the aquatic environment due to the presence of high organic matter contents. However, they may constitute a large potential for biogas production. The present investigation is focused on three laboratory-scale anaerobic expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) bioreactors, continuously operated for 60 d under mesophilic condition with the aim of exploring the feasibility of treating three most significant agro-industrial wastewaters in Chiapas, Mexico (i.e., cheese whey, vinasse, and coffee-processing wastewater). The EGSB bioreactors were operated with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 6 d under stable conditions (i.e., buffer index (BI) of 0.31, 0.34, and 0.03), generating a maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 91, 74, and 96% with an average methane production of 340, 245, and 300 mL/g COD∙d for cheese whey, vinasse, and coffee-processing wastewater, respectively. According to the obtained results, the EGSB bioreactors could be a sustainable alternative to simultaneously solve the environmental problems and to produce bioenergy.

Keywords