Anaerobic fluidized bed degradation and the development of a kinetic model for a particulate organic matter enriched wastewater sludge

The starch manufacturing industrial units, such as sago mills, both in medium and large scale, suffer from inadequate treatment and disposal problems due to high concentration of suspended solids present in the sludge. A laboratory scale study was conducted to investigate the viability of anaerobic treatment of sago waste sludge, enriched in particulate organic matter, using a fluidized bed reactor. The start-up of the reactor was carried out using a mixture of digested supernatant sewage sludge and cow dung slurry in different proportions. The effect of operating variables such as COD of the effluent, bed expansion, minimum fluidization velocity on efficiency of treatment and recovery of biogas was investigated. The maximum efficiency of treatment was found to be 82% and the nitrogen enriched digested sludge was recommended for agricultural use. A kinetic model was developed for the degradation of particulate organic matter using the general kinetic equation [dS/dt = KHCSXC] which allowed for a more accurate mathematical representation of the hydrolysis process. Analysing data from a series of batch tests, the best fit value of C was found to be in the range 0.43 to 0.62.