In this paper, the performance of a well designed anaerobic baffled reactor
(ABR) under shock load was tested with pentachlorophenolic sodium (PCP-Na)
. The reactor tested had a capacity of 16.2 L and consisted of 5 compartmen
ts. Normal operation conditions included a COD of 1150 mg/L and a PCP-Na of
1.5 mg/L. The shock load was generated using a PCP-Na influent at 17.5 mg/
L. The experimental results demonstrated that the ABR system was able to co
pe with the toxic shock load tested. The determined acetate and methane pro
duction indicated that acidogens and methanogens in the first two compartme
nts might be inactivated, but its impacts on the other compartments were re
latively light and could quickly recover.