The treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater with a newly developed anaerobic reactor

In this study, the performance of a newly-developed anaerobic reactor (static granular-bedanaerobic reactor SGBR) in the treatment of an industrial wastewater from poultryslaughterhouse which has a high organic-strength has been investigated. Besides, the effectsof using anaerobic sludge instead of granular-bed, which is a modified version of SGBR, onthe treatment performance, are researched.For this purpose, two reactors are used. One of the reactors is composed of 3,070 mlanaerobic granules-25% of active volume of the reactor-and the other one is composed of675 ml anaerobic granules-75% of active volume of reactor-with 2,025 ml anaerobicsludge above them. The reactors are fed by wastewater from poultry slaughterhouse.Hydraulic retention time is set to be 60, 48, 36 and 30 hr, respectively. At the end ofoperation, COD removal efficiency in granule reactor at 60, 48, 36 and 30 hr of hydraulicretention times are measured as 94.2%, 95.1%, 95.0% and 96.2%, respectively. On the otherhand, COD removal efficiency in anaerobic granule reactor at 60 and 48 hr of hydraulicretention times are measured as 94.7% and 95.2%. In two weeks of operation at 36 hr ofhydraulic retention time, the efficiency is up to 96.7%. However, after switching the hydraulicretention time to 36 hr, during 46th week of operation, the wastewater could not continue todrain. According to the results of the study, while it is concluded that granule reactor showeda very successful treatment under the conditions of applied hydraulic retention times andorganic loadings the study showed that anaerobic sludge reactor showed an efficient treatmentabove 36 hr of hydraulic retention times under the conditions of applied hydraulic retentiontimes and organic loadings. However, although it can treat increasing organic loading with agood efficiency at 36 hr of hydraulic retention time, it is seen that it is inefficient and cloggedat high volumetric loadings.Keywords : Granul, anaerobic sludge, static granular bed reactor (SGBR), static non-granularbed reactor (SNGBR), slaughterhouse wastewater