Effect of the liquid upflow velocity on thermophilic sulphate reduction in acidifying granular sludge reactors

The effect of the superficial liquid upflow velocity on the acidifying and sulfate reducing capacity of thermophilic (55 degrees C; pH 6.0) granular sludge bed reactors treating partly acidified wastewater was investigated. A comparison was made between a UASB and an EGSB reactor, operated at an upflow velocity of 1 m.h-1 and 6.8 m.h-1, respectively. Both reactors were inoculated with a mixture of mesophilic sulphidogenic, thermophilic sulphidogenic and thermophilic methanogenic sludge (ratio 2:1:1). They were fed a synthetic wastewater containing starch, sucrose, lactate, propionate and acetate and a low sulphate concentration (COD/SO4(2-) ratio of 10). At the end of the experiment, the sulphate level of the influent was slightly increased to a COD/SO4(2-) ratio of 8. The reactors were operated at a hydraulic retention time of about 5 h and the imposed volumetric organic loading rates (OLR) ranged from 4.9 to 40.0 g COD l-1d-1. When imposing an OLR of 40.0 g COD l-1d-1, the acidification efficiency dropped to 80% and the sulphate reduction efficiency decreased to 50% in the UASB reactor. In the EGSB reactor, the sulphate reduction efficiency dropped to 30% directly following the OLR increase to 40 g COD l-1d-1, but recovered rapidly to 100% (at an OLR of 35 g COD l-1d-1) until the end of the experiment. In the UASB reactor, there was a net acetate and propionate production. At the higher organic loading rates, propionate was converted to n-butyrate and n-valerate. These back reactions did not occur in the EGSB reactor, in which an active methanogenic population developed, leading to a net acetate removal (up to 50%) and a high gas loading rate (up to 8.5 l l-1d-1). In both reactors, the effluent sulphide concentration was always below 200 mg l-1, of which about 90% was present as undissociated H2S (under the given conditions--pH 5.8-6.1 and 55 degrees C). The biogas (including CH4 and CO2) production rates in the UASB were very low, i.e. < 31 biogas l-1 reactor d-1, resulting in negligible amounts (< 20%) of H2S stripped from the reactor liquid. In the EGSB reactor, the biogas production rates reached up to 8.5 l l-1d-1, resulting in H2S stripping efficiencies up to 75%.