STUDIES RELATED TO SUPPORT MATRIX FOR THE FIXED-FILM FIXED-BED REACTOR

Anaerobic fixed film reactors are characaterized by support media matr ix which retain biomass both as a fixed film on the media and in the f orm of entrapped flocs or sludge particles in the void spaces. The sup port media plays an important role in the treatment of wastewater. Fix ed bed reactors have been operated on a wide variety of support materi al types shapes and sizes, but a detail study regarding the size, shap e, porosity, arrangement/packing of the media in an anaerobic reactor system is needed. Considering the above lacunae, preliminary screening experiments using different media of various particle sizes and attac hment of pure culture of E. coli were studied. Later the studies were extended to volatile solid uptake also. The studies revealed that the activated carbon exhibiting 83.7% attachment of E.Coli is the best sup port matrix followed by refractory bricks exhibiting 79.7% attachment. But refractory brick is prefered over carbon as it is cheaper and can be reused again and again after simple backwashing. Whereas activated carbon is costly and has a fixed life span. Optimum particle sizes ar rived at for activated carbon refractory brick and aggregate are 0.2 m m, 21.0 mm and 35.0 mm respectively. Based on the experiments carried out, the paper discusses the microbial attachment capacity andthe opti mum time requirement, for the attachment and optimization of particle sizes with respect to headless and the details there in.