EFFECT OF THE FEED FREQUENCY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF ANAEROBIC FILTERS

Anaerobic filter technology is suitable for the treatment of biodegrad able organic wastes: for example, wastewaters from food industries. Th ese wastewaters are not produced in a continuous mode since they are o f seasonal nature and hence their production varies considerably durin g the year. In this work, a study of the performance of anaerobic filt ers with changing feeding systems was undertaken. A comparison was mad e between continuous feeding and different semicontinuous modes of fee ding (in which the overall volume to be added into the reactors was di vided into several doses and each of them were added at a constant int erval of time). Filter performance was characterized by determining th e different operational variables: depurative efficiency, methane prod uction, biogas composition and volatile acids. From the obtained resul ts, we conclude that the optimum feed frequency range is 24 doses/day or more. The continuously fed system has both greater stability and de gradation efficiency.