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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

A Novel Bioreactor for High Density Cultivation of Diverse Microbial Communities
Published on: December 25, 2015
Flow patterns of super-high-rate anaerobic bioreactor
Xiao-guang Chen1, Ping Zheng, Yan-jie Guo
1Department of Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China.
Abstract:
The super-high-rate anaerobic bioreactor (SAB) possesses outstanding potential to treat concentrated wastewater. The flow patterns of SAB were investigated through tracer pulse stimulus-response technique and cold-model tests. The flow patterns were demonstrated to be analogous to plug flow at low loading rate and to completely mixed flow at super-high loading rate. Mean dead spaces of SAB caused by biomass and hydraulic behavior were 6.98 % and 21.01 %, respectively. The relationship among the hydraulic dead spaces (V(h)), the volumetric hydraulic loading rate (L) and the volumetric biogas production rate (G) was represented by: V(h)=0.7603 L+0.1627 G - 4.0620. The V(h) was greatly influenced by G over L value. The volumetric efficiency could further be improved when SAB was operated at super-high loading rate. The volume ratio of V(N) and V₁ decreased as N increased and the optimum N was 3.00 or so.
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