Full scale experiences with anaerobic/aerobic treatment plants in the foodand beverage industry

In Germany, there are currently 125 full-scale anaerobic treatment plants t reating industrial wastewater. This paper describes the operational experie nces of several industries (beet sugar, starch, pecrin brewery, distillery, vegetable, potato processing) which undertake anaerobic wastewater treatme nt, with particular emphasis on specific wastewater problems and their solu tions. Also presented are experiences with the handling of high nitrate con centrations, with the treatment of mixtures of industrial wastewater from d ifferent origins, with the chance to prevent the emergence of lime, magnesi um ammonium phosphate (MAP) or aluminium precipitation. This paper deals as well with the first EGSB reactor (Expanded Granular Sludge Bed) at a Germa n potato processing factory as well as the first municipal wastewater treat ment plant combined with a separate anaerobic stage to treat a wastewater m ixture from several small factories. (C) 1999 IAWQ Published by Elsevier Sc ience Ltd. All rights reserved.