Full scale UASB reactor performance in the brewery industry

In this paper the:par experience of the Oriental Breweries, located in Kumi , Korea utilizing a full-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) react or for the anaerobic pretreatment of brewery wastewater is presented. me an aerobic pretreatment system selected has successfully achieved the desired treatment efficiency for the brewery wastewater during that period and it h as also continued operation even with low wastewater concentrations (averag e CODalpha 1,400 mg l(-1)) and Lower flow rates than specified by the desig n parameters, The CBD, removal of the UASB reactor averaged over 80% throug hout the entire period, incurring normal running expenses of only $0.20 sim ilar to0.31 m(-3) of treated water. In addition a Further economical featur e of the process was the utilization of the gas digester production as the municipal gas source, reducing total operating expenses around 30 to 45% an d costing the plant only $0.1 m(-3). Maintenance of good granule production , which is always a key issue in operating UASB systems, was not possible b y this installation, however, so frequent expensive reseeding of the reacto r was often necessary due to biomass washout. The full scare and lab scale research revealed that underloading can be as detrimental as overloading, d ue to excessively long retention time in the UASB system for the overall op erating period and to excessive pre-acidification and/or incorrect reactor configuration of the completely mixed type. To enhance the sludge granulati on, therefore, the installation of a pre-acidification reactor in the UASB system treating easily biodegradable substrates such as brewery wastewater is not necessary because adequate pre acidification can occur in the equali zation tank.