Hi, I have been working on ferric reduction process in my small bench-scale anaerobic bioreactor. I have measured the COD, sulfate, iron of my influent and effluent in regular interval. Also, measured the soild content of sludge. My reactor is now filled with anaerobic sludge. Now I want to measure the sludge production/ sludge yield of my reactor. One way can be flush out all the sludge and start from the baseline again to see the production of sludge per day. But, I'm afraid that can disturb the inner condition of the reactor. Be noted, my reactor is filled with attached growth media for growth of microorganism. Is there any other way/ any equation that can help me to measure the sludge yield by using the effluent quality (removal rate of COD, sulfate, iron) or any other parameters without flushing out all the sludge?
Dear Musfique,
You may be assisted with the attached publication entitled " Learning to Operate Anaerobic Bioreactors" by A. Franco et al. published in Communicating Current Research and Educational Topics and Trends in Applied Microbiology which describes the main parameters and the different techniques used to characterize an anaerobic
bioreactor and how to apply the obtained information to learn how to operate it.
Hoping this will be helpful,
Rafik
If the process of your reactor is at “steady-state” the biofilm production rate can be obtained using the difference value between filtered and unfiltered COD in the effluent (or volatile solids).
If the process is at “start-up” phase, the biofilm production rate should be assessed by sampling the biofilm inside the reactor, in addition to the washout value (the difference between filtered and unfiltered COD or VS of the effluent.
Biofilm production rate is higher at start-up than steady-state, because in the first phase there is more food per microorganism than in the second where your system is at balance.
Thus, you cannot assess biofilm production rates without knowing the operating phase of your system.
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