Bioaugmentation and anaerobic treatment of pharmaceutical effluent in fluidized bed reactor

The start-up of an anaerobic fluidized bed reactor was carried out using a single inoculum (supernatant of anaerobic digester) and later on with multiple inoculum (a mixture of supernatant of anaerobic digester and volatile fatty acid (VFA)) to achieve a faster start-up. Then regular experiments were carried out to study the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on COD removal (%) and biogas production. The pharmaceutical effluent with COD of 2000 to 4000 mg/L was treated in a fluidized bed reactor using an enricher-reactor concept with a hydraulic retention times of 3 (Uf=6Umf) to 24 (Uf=1.5Umf) hr. The maximum COD removal (%) of 91.2 and a maximum biogas production of 5.62 L/d were obtained at 24 hr HRT for a maximum COD concentration of 4000 mg/L corresponding to a fluidization velocity (Uf) of 20 m/hr (1.5Umf) using a granular activated carbon bed of average size 700 μm.